


Closure

by 5mallestviolin



Category: Veronica Mars (TV), Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/M, Misunderstandings, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Not as dead as he seems, Not movie canon but uses elements, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Post-Season/Series 03 AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:55:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 61,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25106557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5mallestviolin/pseuds/5mallestviolin
Summary: Set 5 years after season 3, Veronica seeks closure.Disclaimer: I own none of the VM characters.   But they are fun to play with.A couple of bits of dialogue have also been used.
Relationships: Logan Echolls/Veronica Mars
Comments: 236
Kudos: 190
Collections: VM Fic Club Presents Promptober 2020





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> First fic in a very long time. Please be kind.

Now

Last night she dreamed of him again. Vivid, technicolour dreams of his hands on her body, his lips on hers, their most intimate connection and she woke, sweating, violently aroused but alone in her cold apartment. The dreams were always there. Not every night and not always erotic, but always of him and regular enough that she never had a chance to forget how he made her feel. 

Five years since she had last seen him but memories of her teenage boyfriend still did it for her. Sometimes it bothered her, but tonight she decided to go with it and one hand slid down into her pyjama shorts to make the most of her dream. She was so wet and aroused that it took only a minute before her orgasm hit and had the side benefit of sending her off into a deep dreamless sleep until her alarm went off the next morning. 

Veronica thought about him as she sat to eat breakfast, coffee in hand. She had had other relationships since she had left Neptune for Stanford of course, some even serious. Usually in the early stages, the dreams were rare but she always knew the writing was on the wall when they started becoming more frequent. And on at least one occasion she had awoken calling out his name whilst in bed with a boyfriend. She had explained it away as a childhood nightmare but the relationships didn’t tend to last too much longer afterward. Not many men liked competing with her past. 

But it was time now. She had, against all her instincts, started seeing a therapist. She was lonely, wanted a chance at a real relationship and had realised that nothing was going to have a chance until the dreams of her ex stopped. Her therapist asked the right questions, and the wrong questions and eventually, but not surprisingly, suggested she had never really had closure from the relationship and perhaps she should speak with him again. Fantastic advice, she thought sardonically. But not so easy. Impossible in fact. After all, he died four years ago.


	2. Two

Then

Five years earlier she had quit Neptune after nearly destroying the lives of her dad and her friends. The disastrous election debacle for her dad, the risky situations into which she had put Mac and Wallace in her quest for payback suddenly didn’t sit so well upon her. Sure she wanted the people who had posted that sex video of her to pay, but suddenly the means didn’t justify the ends. 

She had eventually told her dad about the sex tape and its aftermath, of the Castle and Jake Kane and how Mac and Wallace had been drawn in and then Logan’s assaults on Piz and Gory Sorokin. He was furious both for her and at her for running blindly into danger and asked her then and there to transfer to a college out of Neptune. To get out and get a fresh start somewhere else and they would figure out how to pay for it.

She had gone off to an internship at the FBI for the summer and while there found she had been offered scholarship for Stanford. Not a full ride, but enough to make it work and it felt as if fate was intervening to give her that fresh start. Her dad was happy that she would get the chance, she wanted to do whatever she could to start making things up to him and Stanford wasn’t exactly a hardship. Piz had broken up with her over the phone before she even got the chance to tell him about her move. If she was truthful she knew she had barely kept in touch with him since she had headed for Virginia and it was easier to say nothing than to defend herself when he told her she was distant and he had decided to stay in New York. 

After the internship finished, she had only a week left to spend in Neptune before heading north to Stanford. Between packing, saying goodbye to Mac and Wallace and spending time with her dad, there wasn’t much time for anything else but she needed to see Logan once before she left. He was drunk, angry and sad when she found him at the Grand, skewering her with an disdainful stare. “I thought I was out of your life for good” he’d spat at her.

Uncharacteristically biting back a sarcastic rejoinder, she instead opted to just say what she had come for, “I just didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye. I wish. . . I wish things were different, we were different but we’re not and I just can’t be here anymore. I’m sorry,” and she fled from his room.

She had no idea that six months later she would be back for his funeral.


	3. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Working on dialogue. Not happy with it but if I don’t post now I never will

Now

“So I’m supposed to write a closure letter to him.”

“A what?” Said Mac, incredulously.

Veronica took a sip of her wine before repeating “A closure letter. According to the therapist it will help my brain to understand that part of my life is over now and it’s time to move on.”

“O-kay” Mac replied slowly. “And you paid this therapist how much for that little gem?”.

Don’t remind me.” Veronica rolled her eyes. “Anyhow, this place is really quiet tonight, no wait for a table”. Wednesday night drinks and dinner had become a bit of a fixture for them since college after Mac had picked up a full scholarship to study comp sci at Stanford as well in her Junior year. Pizza and beer or cheap wine in the college years had made way for cheap casual restaurants before they had found this trendy but not achingly hip gastropub mid way between their respective offices.

Mac laughed, “I guess that new place a couple of blocks down is taking some of the trade. But stop trying to change the subject. You are supposed to write a letter to your ex?”

“Yes”.

“Your dead ex.”

“Yes.”

“You have told the therapist Logan died, haven’t you” Mac asked quite reasonably really. 

“Yes, hence the letter instead of talking to him in person.”

“But why?”

“You know about the dreams.”

“Wait, you still have dreams about him? I thought they stopped.”

“Well they did, a bit, but they keep coming back. Not all the time, but often enough”. 

“Is this why Evan broke up with you? Nightmares about not being able to save your ex too much for him?” Veronica thrashing and screaming in her sleep had been how Mac had found out about the dreams when they roomed together in those last few years of college.

Veronica flushed a little. “Not those dreams,” she mumbled.

“Oh, you mean,” Mac left it hanging.

Veronica took a deep breath and blurted out “Apparently sex dreams about a dead ex-boyfriend were too much for his ego.”

Mac could see his point, but knew better than to say anything. Instead, she picked up the wine bottle and topped off their glasses.

A wry grin crossed Veronica’s face. “Well sex dreams of Logan were better than Evan in real life, so no great loss,” making Mac laugh. “But,” Veronica continued, “even I can tell that it’s not healthy. That even if my head understands he’s gone, my subconscious is still hung up on him and I’m not going to have a successful relationship with anyone else until I can put him in the past.”

“And a letter will do that?” Mac asked dubiously.

“Probably not,” agreed Veronica as she finished her drink. “But I’ve got to start somewhere. Anyway, I’m going to have to head home soon. The firm’s got me heading south to Monterey for a case tomorrow. Background on a fraud case and I’ve got an early start.” Veronica had taken a job as an investigator for a San Francisco law firm out of college. With a major in criminology and a minor in journalism, she was still unsure about going to law school and with journalism jobs few and far between, she had found a job using her still valid if a bit rusty PI license to make some money and give herself time to think, and found she really enjoyed it. “Are you meeting Alex tonight?” referring to Mac’s boyfriend. 

“Yeah, but I’ll be back at the apartment tomorrow night,” she said about the apartment they shared on the southern side of the city. “Alex is heading for New York for a few days.”

“Okay. I’ll probably see you then, although I may have to overnight if the job goes long.”


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A glimpse into Veronica at work. Lots of angst. And another conversation with Mac.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was trying to decide if I should split it this into two. 
> 
> I didn’t so there might be a little longer gap to the next update.
> 
> Thanks for kudos and comments. Warms the heart of a long dormant writer.

Monterey

She had a lot of time to think on the early morning two hour drive to Monterey. The job was straightforward enough. Preliminary surveillance to check out the clients place of business. Her client suspected several employees but needed evidence. A couple of hours yesterday reviewing employees’ social media pages had identified a few more likely to be talkative. Her cover as an office temp would let her get a feel for the personnel and office. A quick look see and report back, easy.

More and more her thoughts wandered to Logan. About a month after their ugly farewell in Neptune he had called her out of the blue, obviously drunk but less angry. He loved her, he missed her, he was sorry. The calls continued every week for couple of months, always sorry, but always drunk, until four months after she had moved away she finally told him to stop, that she missed him but they couldn’t keep doing this, they just kept hurting each other. 

The last words she remembered saying to him were “You’re a good person, Logan. Find something good to do with your life.”

His last words to her, “Fuck you, Veronica.”

She realised he had dropped out of college and gone to Europe after his name came up in the tabloids a few times with ‘celebutante wild child runs amok in Monaco’ type stories, until finally, the one she had been dreading appeared, ‘Son of infamous actor OD’s in Cannes’.

She had returned to Neptune for the funeral Trina held. Stony faced, she stood at the grave side of the boy she had loved but couldn’t save, but that night she visited Lilly’s grave and wept for her two lost loves until Wallace and Mac took her home. 

She shook her head and focussed back on the road. She couldn’t afford to go back down that rabbit hole. Initially she had blamed herself for his death. She had known intellectually that it wasn’t true but it kept insinuating itself in her brain. She could have stayed, she should have asked him to come join her, she must have known he needed her, could’ve, should’ve, would’ve until she had become paralysed by guilt and grief. The dreams had started then and she had broken down, exhausted after weeks alternating between nightmares and insomnia 

When she started forgetting to attend classes, submit assessments and her previously excellent grades plummeted, one of her professors sought her out in her college dorm. Professor Crawley turned up and took one look at Veronica on the verge of collapse before insisting upon taking her to campus health services to get help. Two days later she was discharged with instructions to visit campus counselling services. She hated counselling but endured it for the assessment submission extensions they gave her which enabled her to pick up her grades. Eventually she came round to believing even though Logan had been vulnerable and broken, he was an adult and she wasn’t responsible for his choices, his life or ultimately his death.

She still dreamed about him, though. The nightmares of not being able to save him became less frequent and were replaced by other dreams. Some of their ugly fights and uglier breakups but by and large happier dreams, of the innocent times with herself, Logan, Lilly and Duncan before Lilly’s death, of the lazy days between high school and freshman year at Hearst when she and Logan had spent a lot of that summer lazing around at the beach, watching movies and making out. The erotic dreams started then too, dreams of soft touches and intimate caresses giving way to heated, inventive, can’t get enough of each other sex. 

She reached Monterey and headed for the client’s offices. She stopped in a coffee shop across the street to recaffienate and review her notes. Whilst she sat sipping coffee, getting her notebook from her bag, she heard a familiar voice muttering thanks, his voice. She looked up, but all she saw was three middle aged men at the counter ordering coffee. She didn’t see the tall man in a suit who had just walked out the door.

After spending the morning snooping around the office, ostensibly making coffee, copying and filing, she accepted an invitation to join some of the staff for lunch, giving her an opening to ask questions. Just after lunch, she took the opportunity of having to hand deliver some paperwork to drive to Pebble Beach to check out the chief accountant’s residence. The beach front address had set off her radar after a quick check of property values in the area confirmed it should be above pay grade, but she wanted a visual siting of the house. She knew there are lots of reasons people have money, not all of which are illegal, but it was enough to warrant further investigation. After taking a few photos of the house, she turned to go back to her car and noticed a few surfers out in the waves. She stopped and watched, as the scene evoked memories of watching Logan surf. One of them even looked like him and she felt an unexpected sting of tears in her eye.

Just before finishing up for her day as ‘Veronica, office temp’, the receptionist, Evelyn, asked her to join them for drinks after work down at one of the wharf side bars. Given that she had found that Evelyn, with her gorgeous looks and stunning figure, was also both observant and had a taste for spilling dirt, she opted to join them. Due to her early start, she decided to stay the night in Monterey rather than drive back late and tired and ducked into the ladies to quickly book a hotel for the night on her phone, before heading out with Evelyn. 

The bar was crowded and noisy, a popular spot for after work drinks with happy hour specials to tempt patrons. Wary of accepting drinks from anyone she didn’t know well, Veronica volunteered to go to the bar to buy drinks. By the time she returned with a cocktail for Evelyn and a faux g&t for herself (extra tonic, hold the gin), Evelyn had already amassed a following of early twenty somethings. It was more fun than she had expected, and once she realised she had as much information out of Evelyn as she was likely to get, she relaxed and enjoyed herself, having a real g&t and smiling as the youthful crowd chatted and flirted around her. 

Knowing she had another early start in the morning, she excused herself around seven, saying goodbye to Evelyn, cheerfully waving off her entreaties to stay out and play. “Maybe another time” she said, barely audible in the noisy bar. 

The crowd had thinned a little after happy hour had finished and she made her way fairly easily towards the door. Heading towards the door, she glimpsed out of the corner of her eye a tall brown haired man in profile who looked so familiar, so much like Logan, that she stopped short and turned towards him. At that moment she heard a shout from the bar with a girl she recognised as one of Evelyn’s crowd calling out “Will, over here.” He turned away from her at that moment, heading towards the girl at the bar so that all she could see was the back of his head. She shook herself, knowing she must have been mistaken and headed out the door.

Once she had checked in at the hotel, she emailed a short report of her findings for the day and then perused the room service menu for dinner options, settling on a burger and fries. Leaving her laptop open, she considered searching ‘how to write a closure letter’ when her phone rang. It was Mac.

“Solve your case?” asked Mac.

“Think so. The head accountant has expensive real estate, but nothing else screams fraud. Her 2IC on the other hand had expected to but didn’t get her job before they brought her in. He has also been working odd hours and weekends and has been getting packages delivered from really expensive menswear stores. It’s all looking a bit obvious, but I think he may also be attempting to set her up for the fall.”

“All that in a day? Impressive.” said Mac.

“Not really. Never underestimate a chatty receptionist with an eye for fashion.” 

“So what’s Monterey like?” said Mac.

“Nice. Maybe we should come down one weekend to have a look around. Beaches are pretty.”

“Since when have I ever been a beach person?”

“Fair point.” responded Veronica. “So listen, how crazy would you think I was if I told you I keep thinking I’m seeing Logan down here.”

“On a scale of one to Tom Cruise, probably a three or a four.”

“Out of five?”

“No, ten. It’s not really that crazy if you’ve been talking to a therapist about him lately.” replied Mac. “He’s on your mind and you’re probably just noticing people that remind you of him. Maybe you just need to do something to get your mind off him.”

“Like?”

“Take up tennis, stamp collecting, or maybe just get laid?

“Getting laid ends up reminding me of him.”

“Maybe get laid by someone better than him?”

“Easier said than done.”

“Was he really that good, or could your subconscious be embellishing your memories.”

“You have no idea. Before Logan, I had only been with Duncan which was ok but not amazing. We were young and not especially experienced. But to Logan, sex was like a competitive sport, one that he was very good at. I honestly didn’t realise how good or unusual that was until after. It’s not that the men I’ve dated since him have necessarily been bad,” she trailed off.

“It’s just that Logan was better,” Mac finished for her.

“Yeah.”


	5. Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A reveal, lots more angst and a midpoint unsatisfactory chapter end.

Veronica

Veronica woke early for her trip back to San Francisco. It hadn’t been a restful night and the tangled sheets told the story of her night disturbed by haunting dreams. She’d thought about going back to the bar and picking someone up for the night, but one night stands weren’t really her style, and getting her cover blown at a bar while drinking with the client’s employees didn’t say ‘professional’ to her either. It all kept circling round in her head, but ultimately for her to have a chance to get back in the game, she knew she had to first get him out of her head.

She packed up her overnight bag, checked out and dropped her bag into her car before heading to a beachfront coffee shop she had seen the night before for some breakfast before heading up the road. She sat, drinking coffee and eating a pastry while watching the early morning surfers riding waves, tempted to get out her camera but knowing she didn’t have enough time. Getting up to leave she ordered one more coffee to go for the road. A few minutes later, coffee in hand, she turned quickly to head for the door and collided hard with a wide solid chest, spilling her coffee all down both his and her front.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry, let me get some napkins.” She spun back around to the counter.

“Veronica?”

That voice. His voice. Now she was sure of it. She was going mad. She slowly turned back around and tilted her head up to see his face. Blue eyes met brown in recognition. She threw up her hands and backed away two steps saying “no no no no no no.”

He took a step towards her. “Veronica, are you...”

She cut him off, “No, this is not happening to me.” Her voice pitched up half an octave and she cried out “You are dead.” And she ran out, brushing past him in her rush.

Logan

He looked after her in bewilderment, thinking ‘what the hell was that’. He hadn’t heard from or seen her in nearly five years, but that look of utter shock in her eyes was genuine. He couldn’t figure out what she was doing here in Monterey, when she was supposed to be in New York. Columbia Law school according to his lawyer, with a scholarship courtesy of the Castaway Foundation. And what did she mean by ‘you are dead’? She knew he hadn’t died, she knew, didn’t she?

He ran out after her, looking up and down the street, but she had disappeared. He looked at the cars parked roadside and spotted her in the drivers seat of a SUV. He went over and tapped on the passenger window. She didn’t look up, her hands covering her face, so he tapped again, a little harder. She turned towards him and he could see tears streaming down her face. She stifled a sob and turned her face back into her hands. Increasingly concerned, he tried the car door handle, surprised when it opened. The Veronica he remembered never left her car door unlocked.

Opening the door, he reached in to touch her shoulder, saying “Veronica” as calmly as he could.

She turned her head toward him again at his touch. “It’s really you, isn’t it? But it can’t be. Maybe I really am going nuts.”

“You’re not crazy, Veronica,” he whispered, undone at her distress. He wanted to rail at her, demand answers, but the only time he could remember seeing her this upset was when Lilly died, and that tempered his frustration. “Can I get in, talk. Something is really wrong here.”

“Seriously? No! You died Logan. I went to your funeral. I wept for you, grieved for you, was haunted by you. I went to fucking therapy for you, twice! But you’re not dead, you’re here in front me and I don’t know what to think,” her anger was palpable.

His frustration flared at her and he retorted “Bullshit, Veronica. I wrote you a letter before this all went down, asked you to wait, that it would all be cleared up. You sent my lawyer a fucking email saying you wanted nothing to do with me. But you were happy enough to take the money.”

“You wrote nothing. Sent me nothing. I got nothing. I heard your death reported on on TMZ. And I certainly have never taken your money. I was never with you for your money, I loved you, you idiot,” Veronica all but hissed at him.

About to retaliate, Logan suddenly processed two things she had just said. First and foremost, that she had loved him, words she had never said to him before, words that flooded him with hope. Secondly that she hadn’t gotten the money, the scholarship he had explicitly created for her that had been the starting point for the foundation he had established. A little calmer, he spoke again with less rancour, but more urgency in his voice, “Please Veronica, something’s not right here. I never thought you didn’t know.”

She took a deep breath and he could almost hear her counting to ten before she answered, “I don’t know anything anymore. I don’t know if I can believe you. I need to think. I need you to let me think. Please,” she entreated.

It hurt him to realise she didn’t trust him, but he wondered why was he surprised. She had never really trusted him before. But if he was fair, he’d wanted her to trust him, but he’d never done much to prove himself as trustworthy. He had wanted unconditional trust, she needed him to earn it. Immovable object meet irresistible force. Rehab and truckloads of therapy had told him that they had both sabotaged their earlier relationship iterations by expecting to be abandoned and then creating the situations to make the other leave. He thought fast, he’d just found her again, she was angry, confused and so was he. But she’d loved him. “Please Veronica, I can see you’re upset, that you need some time, some space, but please don’t just leave. At least can I get your number, give you mine?” He infused the request with all the desperation he felt.

He knew he’d said something wrong the moment he saw her face harden.

“My number’s the same Logan. It always has been. You’ve always known how to get hold of me. Now get out and let me go,” said Veronica.

“Shit Veronica, that’s not what I meant,” he said wearily as he retreated from her car. “I’m sorry,” just before he shut the car door. She started the car, pulled out and drove away. “Shit,” he repeated to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments. I played about with Izzy_B’s suggestion but couldn’t make it quite work. Went for the the coffee shop trope instead.


	6. Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mac has some insights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Veronica & Mac conversations.

Running

“Fuck fuck fuck,” Veronica muttered as she pulled out and started driving up the road. She’d gone about 100 yards before she realised she was driving the wrong way. Grateful the road was quiet due to the early hour, she U turned her car and started back up the road towards where Logan was standing. Hoping she wouldn’t regret it, she slowed to a stop opposite him and wound down her window. “Text me your number,” she called to him, and drove off.

She been driving, stewing over her thoughts for a full hour before she thought it was late enough to call Mac. At least Mac’s boyfriend was away so at worst she would be waking her up, not interrupting anything. And that made her think of sex, which made her think of Logan, again, fuck it. She called Mac, grateful when Mac answered quickly. 

“Veronica, why are you calling at this ungodly hour?” asked Mac, sleepily. 

“I’m not crazy Mac, I saw him, spoke to him.”

“Who?”

“Logan.” That woke Mac up.

“Sorry, you,” Mac paused a moment, “spoke to Logan. What exactly does that mean?” asked Mac carefully.

“He’s not dead, Mac,” said Veronica. She spoke quickly, running words together, “I spoke to him this morning. I don’t know what to think. He was saying something about having sent me a letter. He said ‘something’s not right here. I never thought you didn’t know.’ What the hell does that mean.”

“Slow down V, you’re babbling,” Mac interrupted. “First tell me where you saw him.”

Veronica took a deep breath, “I literally bumped into him this morning at a coffee shop in Monterey. Spilled coffee on both of us. I hadn’t even seen his face at that moment, just turned to grab some napkins to clean up and he said my name. My god, Mac, I heard that voice right to the pit of my stomach and when I looked up to his face, I thought I was going mad. Utterly, completely nuts.”

“And then?”

“I ran out to my car.”

“So how can you be sure it was really him?”

“He said my name. He followed me out. He spoke to me.” She spoke in staccato, trying to get the facts out.

“Okay,” said Mac, still not entirely convinced. “What did he say?”

“He said something was very wrong. In fact he said that twice. We fought. I was angry at him for making us believe that he was dead, I mean we both went went to his funeral. We all went, you, me, Wallace, Dick, even my dad.” Veronica spoke a bit slower this time. “I mourned him Mac, wept for him, and he wasn’t even dead. Then he got angry at me. He said he had written to me, but I had replied to his lawyer that I wanted nothing to do with him. But that I was happy to take his money. What the fuck, Mac? You know I never got a letter, never replied to his lawyer and certainly never took his money.”

“No, you didn’t, you wouldn’t. Maybe that’s why he was saying something was wrong.” Mac said thoughtfully. “What happened then?”

“I got angry. I told him exactly what I just said. That I had got nothing from him. No letter and certainly no money. I told him that I’d never been with him for money, I’d loved him. He knew that Mac, he knew I’d never wanted his money. He then said he never thought I didn’t know.”

Mac digested that a moment and said, “it sounds like some big stuff up happened. Like he thought you knew he was alive and we all believed him dead.”

“Yeah”

“So why are you more than halfway back to San Francisco instead of talking to him some more?”

“Wait, how do you know I’m on my way back?” asked Veronica.

“Just looked you up on ‘Find my friends’. Wanted to make sure I could find if if you’d actually gone off the deep end.”

“Cell phone trackers are so passé.”

“But back to the point, V, why aren’t you talking to him now?”

“I was so confused Mac, I told him I wasn’t sure I could believe him, that I needed him to let me think.” Veronica left it hanging.

“And,” said Mac.

“And then he made me angry again. He was so reasonable. He said he could see I needed space, time, whatever. But then he asked if he could give me his number, and if I would give him mine. But Mac, my number hasn’t changed. He’s always had it, he could always have contacted me. I told him him to go and then I drove away.”

“And he did?”

“Yeah,” said Veronica. “But I couldn’t let it go, let him go like that.”

“So what did you do?” asked Mac.

“I turned the car around and told him to text me his number. Then I drove off in a fit of self-righteousness. And now I can’t even call him. I’m an idiot.”

“Only a little bit. It’s understandable, you were blindsided. He’ll text you his number,” said Mac.

“But what if he doesn’t?” asked Veronica, voice getting perilously close to breaking. 

Mac had to stop herself from laughing out loud at this. She couldn’t remember hearing Veronica this turned around about anything, anyone in years. “Veronica, you’re an investigator, you’ll find him. I’ll help if you need. But I don’t think it’ll come to that because he will contact you.”

“How can you be so sure? I was so angry, so dismissive. I mean you’re right of course, I will hunt him down now, but what if he’s already decided he’s better off without me?”

Mac was quiet for a moment, considering her words carefully. “V, you talked a lot about him with Wallace and I after the funeral. You also talked a lot when I first moved up here to Stanford, when you were in therapy then. One of the things you said you regretted was not telling him how you felt, because you were scared of making yourself vulnerable.”

“So?”

“I’m pretty sure you just said that you told him, for the time ever, that you’d loved him. That boy was crazy for you, trust me, he’s not going to let that go.”

There was complete silence at the other end of the line. 

“Come home V, I’ve got a flexi day, you call in sick. I’ll see what I can dig up before you get here.


	7. Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Searching the past and wisdom from Keith.

Logan

He kept swearing under his breath as he watched her car drove away. When she turned around to come back, his hopes started to rise. Then she told him to text her his number and he knew he had a chance. At least one thing was the same, Veronica Mars couldn’t resist a mystery.

Foregoing his usual post morning surfing coffee from the little early morning coffee shop where he had run into Veronica, he headed home wanting to get to his phone. As soon as he got home, he grabbed his phone off the counter and started to text her his number. Then he stopped, panicking. He told himself that he didn’t want to distract her while she was driving and then realised how bullshit that excuse was as he didn’t even know where she was going or how long it would take her to get there. He knew she would start tracking him down pretty soon, and he had every intention of being found. But he wasn’t sure if he’d get more than one chance with her and he wanted, no needed, to be ready to tell his story, and right now, something in that story appeared to stink. 

His first instinct was to call his lawyer, demand some answers, but stopped short. His lawyer seemed to be the linking figure to the things that didn’t make sense. He didn’t believe Veronica could be lying to him. Her reactions were too real and clearly very raw. But, god she was gorgeous and when she had got angry with him, that just made his physical reaction to her stronger. He didn’t want to lose her this time by fucking up. And then it struck him. Why was he assuming she was single? At this point his thoughts started running wild. Why would she be single? She was a stunning, sexy 25 year old woman. Well if she wasn’t single, he would deal with that. He just wanted her to be happy. She deserved that. If she wasn’t single, they could just be friends again. Like they were before when they were young, before Lilly died. They could be friends. But fuck he hoped she was single. 

He shook his head to clear it. What was it about Veronica that could turn him inside out so quickly.? Then he laughed out loud. Stupid question really because the answer was obvious. He still loved her. Then he smiled as he remembered that she had told him that she’d loved him too.

He decided to give himself a little bit of time before texting through his number. He wanted to see if he could figure out what was going on. It was just going seven am, so he jotted down a quick plan of attack, showered quickly, made coffee, and opened up his laptop to look for answers.

He started by navigating to the Foundation’s homepage and pulling up the public annual reports. He was proud of the Castaway Foundation, the foundation he had established just after he turned 21 with his inheritance. It had started after a conversation with Keith Mars of all people. After Veronica had gone to her FBI internship at the end of their freshman year at Hearst, Keith had come to see him at the Neptune Grand. He’d spoken about how he wanted her out of Neptune. How this town was destroying her dreams and opportunities. He had then told Logan that he’d asked Veronica to transfer to a college out of Neptune. 

He remembered the conversation. “She needs a chance Logan, and so many of her chances have been taken away,” Keith had said.

He’d responded, “well I’m not standing in her way. She dumped me, made no bones about telling me it was for good this time. She’s got Piz now, anyway.”

“Logan, if I thought Piz could stop her, I’d be talking to him. But I’m not, I’m talking to you. You two have a complicated history and you’re the one who who beat up a Russian mobster for her. Don’t underestimate your influence, and just let her have this chance.”

He had responded, “I think you’re overestimating her feelings for me, but I won’t ask her to stay.”

Keith had left then, but something he’d said had stuck in his head. ‘So many of her chances had been taken away’. He thought then about the opportunities she’d lost along the way, a lot of them due to Aaron. Lilly’s death, at Aaron’s hands, had resulted in her dad losing his job. The Mars’ had lost their house and she and her dad had started living hand to mouth. Aaron had attacked her, locked her in a fridge and set it on fire, and her father had been badly injured rescuing her. His medical bills had been high, and Keith had had to write a book to pay for those. She’d also lost the Kane scholarship after blowing off a final to be in court to hear the verdict on Aaron. Sure it could be seen as her choice, but he knew better. She’d been there for Lilly. And for him. 

So he did something about it. She’d gotten into Stanford the previous year, but without a scholarship it had been too expensive, and Hearst had given her a partial. But she’d deferred Stanford instead of turning it down. Wishful thinking she’d said that summer. An oddly whimsical turn from her, she wasn’t quite ready to give up her dream completely. 

His remaining trust fund couldn’t cover the whole ride, but he worked out that he could cover a partial for now, and once the next tier kicked in when he turned 21, he could increase that. He got his lawyer to contact Stanford and arrange for the scholarship offer to be anonymous. His lawyer thought he was crazy, but he was insistent. He wasn’t proud of much else that year, but he was proud of that. 

After the drinking, the OD, the rehab and well into the therapy, he’d had the idea for Castaway. Child, Adolescent Survivors of Trauma, CAST, became Castaway. A Foundation providing scholarships to people who had their chances taken away by traumatic events. People like Veronica. In fact, upon its establishment, Veronica was recipient number 1, or she was supposed to be. Now he wasn’t so sure. 

His lawyer had been supposed to give Veronica his letter, explaining how and why he’d decided to shed the Echolls name, and to organise for her to get the scholarship because of what Aaron had done. His lawyer had told him she had rejected his overtures but taken the scholarship. In retrospect, he thought it was uncharacteristic of her, but at the time, he’d had such a poor opinion of himself, he had believed it. 

Interrupting his reverie, he checked the time, swearing when he saw that it was already nine am. He needed to do more research, but didn’t want to keep her waiting any longer. He’d deleted Veronica’s number from his phone years before. It was too tempting and he’d forced himself to remove the temptation. More symbolic than actual, because he still knew her number by heart and punched it in now. Attaching a contact for William Lester, he added the note, This is my name now. Please call me when you’re ready. Logan. His finger hovered above the send button. He quickly added an x and hit send. Then he dove back into his research.

Veronica, San Francisco 

Veronica reached the San Francisco apartment she shared with Mac about 8.30am. She’d called her boss at the law firm after talking to Mac in the car and said she had a few personal things to deal with. Her boss had told her that was fine, but they would need her in at two for the client meeting. 

Mac called out as she opened the door and walked in, “Has he texted yet?” 

She answered, “No.”

“Well he will. Grab some coffee and then come see what I’ve found.”

Veronica grabbed coffee and some water and joined her in front of Mac’s laptop at their table. 

“So,” said Mac without any preamble, “there’s no record of a death certificate for Logan Echolls. I’ve managed to have a look back at the news around that time and the French newspaper report is of an OD. When TMZ picked up on it, it was then reported as a death. That’s what we saw.”

“But Trina held a funeral for him, he was buried, and we were there.”

“Technically, it was termed a memorial service. They buried a casket, but there was no body in it. “

“You’re kidding me.”

“Nope. So far, from what I can find, Logan never resurfaced after the od. Trina reported him missing to the US embassy, filed a missing person report in France that implies she thought he had fallen off a boat and then nothing. Then she came home and held a funeral, sorry memorial service, for him.”

“Why,” said Veronica, “no scratch that. Two most likely reasons are a nice chunk of attention and publicity for her and she may have been hoping that she would inherit his part of the Aaron’s estate.”

Mac replied, “Yeah, she filed to have him declared dead, but it wasn’t upheld, and the judge said it will have to wait the full seven years.”

“Where did you find out that?”

“Lexus Nexus,” she replied referring to the subscription legal case database.

“Impressive. Thanks, Mac, that’s an amazing start. I have a client meeting this afternoon at two, but I told the office I had some personal things to sort out, so I don’t have to be in before then. I had a thirteen hour day yesterday anyway, so they’re not worried about a few hours this morning. So until I have to go, I’m going to start digging.”

“Sounds good Bond,” referring to their high school nickname for her. “But first may I suggest a short shower and a change of clothes. You look and smell like you fell into a slightly rancid caramel coffee scented bath.”

Veronica looked down at herself and exclaimed “eeww. Okay, good idea. But Mac,” she spoke uncharacteristically insecurely, “call out if he texts while I’m in the shower.”

“I will.” Mac responded gently. “Now go, hurry up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m pushing out fast short chapters at the moment. I’m basically writing, editing and posting as soon as possible because I’m aware that if I hold off or wait, I’ll chicken out or overthink it. I know it makes the chapters short, but I figure that’s better than nothing. This weekend has been really productive, but I know it’ll slow down tomorrow with work and life getting in the way.


	8. Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who in the world is William Lester?
> 
> Logan and Veronica both go in search of answers.

Veronica 

Veronica’s phone pinged with an incoming message as she was getting dressed. She snatched it up off the dresser and looked, pleased and relieved to see it was a number she’d never seen before. Unlocking the phone, she read the message, eyes widening at the the full contact listing and ‘William Lester’. Choosing not to think too much about the significance of that little x at the end, she pulled on sweats and went out to join Mac.

She showed Mac the message. Mac said “ may I,” and took the phone from her, opening the contact and forwarding the contact to her own phone. “He’s given you a lot of information. Name, number, email, home address and it looks like a workplace? It doesn’t look like he’s trying to hide anything. Do you want to check him out or call him first?”

“I’m not sure, ten minutes ago I would have sworn I would say call him, but now I think I need to find out a bit about William Lester first.”

“Well, he expects you to investigate and he’s made it easy with this information. He also clearly wants to talk to you, but he’s not demanding, so it doesn’t sound like he’s angry,” Mac stated. And he’s flirting, she thought, with that little x. “Look, for what it’s worth, if you have to be at a client meeting this afternoon, you might want to delay talking to him until after. There may be some emotional, say, upheaval and you don't want to be trying to cover that up in front of the client.”

Veronica looked relieved at Mac’s suggestion. “So, I’ll spend this morning finding out what I can about William Lester and I’ll call him after work. Forewarned and forearmed and all that. I’ll look him up on the private investigation databases, but could you find out about the Foundation listed as work on his contact, Castaway.”

“Easy,” replied Mac.

Veronica looked at Mac shrewdly. “Did you just give me a justification for not calling him right away because you knew I was nervous?”

“Sure,” said Mac. “What are friends for? By the way, how did he look this morning?”

Veronica sighed, “Hot. Seriously hot.”

Mac smiled, knowingly.

Logan

Logan didn’t get much from the Foundation’s public reports. It just told him how much money was coming in, how much was going out, how many recipients there were and that sort of info. He’d told Andrew, his lawyer, he wanted it completely legitimate. It wasn’t meant to be a tax break or slush fund. He moved on to his email account. Although, ostensibly William Lester was the Investments Manager for the Foundation, he was also a director and saw the candidate applications for approval by the board. Nothing looked out of the ordinary there either. But he knew where the meat would be, and moved towards checking the Foundation accounts. He’d spent enough time around Veronica working cases all those years ago to know to follow the money. He didn’t have his own access to the accounting software, but he could go through the account summaries that were part of the board papers to see what he could find, but he suspected he would need a professional. He also remembered he had to be at the Foundation office at 11.

His phone pinged and he glanced down to see he had a message from Veronica. ‘Working today, is it ok to call tonight? Also, why William?’ He smiled, just happy to hear from Veronica so quickly.

His phone pinged again a moment later. This message was from a number he didn’t recognise. He read, ‘If u hurt her again, I’ll destroy you, Mac.’ He responded to this one quickly, ‘Message received and understood.’

He took a moment to think about what to write to Veronica. No ‘x’ from her but that had never been her style, but the ‘why William’ sounded more like Veronica-speak for flirtation. At least, he hoped. Play it cool he thought. But not too cool. Easygoing. ‘Tonight is fine. 7ish?’ He wanted to pin her to a time or he’d be nervous all evening. And ‘William, nothing special, common name, sounded ok with Lester.’

That done, he looked up the board papers for the last year and then a couple of years back when Veronica would still have been at Stanford. The payments listed to Stanford were marked tuition, living allowance, and supplemental. He then looked at Columbia where she was supposedly at law school in the last year and only saw tuition and living. He had another look at the supplemental payment and realised that annually, it was approximately the same amount as the original partial scholarship he had arranged for her. Since it was looking like Veronica had not received the full scholarship, that left him wondering, who had?

When his phone pinged, he looked over and saw she had replied ‘7ish should be fine’ 

Responding, he wrote, ‘Did you end up graduating from Stanford?’

V: ‘Yes, why’

L: ‘Curious. I realise I just gave you an all access pass to William Lester, but I don’t know anything of you since Neptune. Graduate school?

V: ‘not yet. Maybe law school, but expensive and I’m not so sure anymore. Working now so student loans not so big if I do’

L: ‘working?’

V: ‘Law firm in SF.’

L: ‘Paralegal?’

V: ‘no, in-house investigator. The pay is better and the lawyers don’t expect me to make coffee’

A lump formed in Logan’s throat. Veronica and investigating tended to end up in danger. ‘Is that like PI work? He asked carefully.

V: ‘yes. PI licence came in handy. It’s more preliminary work and support for law firm clients. Locating witnesses, a bit of preliminary surveillance, background checks for smaller employers. Mostly the white collar end of what my dad did. Nothing dangerous.’

L: ‘He must be happy.’

V: ‘not as happy as if I was at law school. But he’s ok with it now.’

L: now?

V: ‘well, it’s been over a year and the most dangerous thing I’ve done is break a heel.’ 

Logan breathed a sigh of relief and without thinking texted ‘I always liked seeing you in heels’. And then stared at the screen, cursing himself. 

Veronica caught her breath. Not sure how to respond, she waited a minute and then picked her words carefully. ‘I remember. But I have to go now, so 7ish, I’ll call you.’ And put her phone face down.

Veronica

An hour later, Veronica looked up from her laptop. “Time to share?” she said to Mac. Mac held up a finger to hold her off for a moment. Veronica stretched her neck and shoulders until Mac looked up. 

“Want to tell me first if that was him on the text flurry earlier?” asked Mac.

“Um, yes. Just confirming tonight.”

“That’s all?” Mac asked sceptically.

“Mostly,” replied Veronica.

Mac looked at her, noting the slight flush on her cheeks. “Just remember that Logan Echolls on the flirt is a powerful weapon.”

“Noted,” said Veronica. “Anyhow, back to the point. William Lester was a legal name change registered mid 2008, but the details of the records, including the original name are sealed. A passport was issued to William Lester in 2008 in the US embassy in Switzerland and a new California drivers licence was issued in 2009, but the address listed was a law office in LA until a bit over a year ago when it was changed to Monterey. The Monterey address is rented, but beachfront not far from where he I bumped into him. I looked up the address on google earth. It’s a house, not huge, but modern, clean lines, classy. He clearly still has money, even if it’s a rental. Will look at that next.” Veronica continued, “More surprises, he has a job. He is an investment manager for the Castaway Foundation, but the salary, which is less than mine, is donated back to the Foundation. He is on the Board of Directors for the Foundation. He is also enrolled at Berkeley, sophomore year but not much campus time. He started there with online classes, 50% course load before he returned to the US. Now he does a mix of face to face and online courses. He is doing about a three quarter load and has campus based classes on Tuesdays but the rest are online. Unusual mix of courses. Apart from the general education requirements he’s done Modern American Literature, Abnormal Psych and Mathematics. He’s not brought any credits from Hearst, and he hasn’t declared a major, has a 3.3 GPA. No next of kin is listed. Drives a grey Range Rover which he bought in Monterey.”

“Wow,” said Mac. 

“Wow, indeed,” replied Veronica. “That’s not the Logan Echolls I remember. He was plenty smart, but not focused like this. This sounds like someone making something of himself.” 

“It sounds like he found a purpose, V. It’s good. Castaway is a great Foundation, and it looks like he established it,” said Mac. “Basics, it was established in 2009 and was set up to offer scholarships for childhood and adolescent survivors of trauma, that’s where the ‘cast’ part of Castaway comes from. The founding statement is about giving opportunities back to the innocent whose opportunities have been taken away through traumatic events.” Mac looked up as Veronica sucked in a breath. 

“He did it for me,” she whispered. 

“It does kind of look that way,” replied Mac. “Anyway, opportunities are primarily full or partial educational scholarships, but have included small business seed capital. All come with access to therapy, but it’s not required. Applications can be submitted anytime and may come from individuals but are also sought from teachers, guidance counsellors et cetera. Awards are made annually and are confidential, including to the institution. They boast scholarship recipients currently attending UCLA and Caltech amongst others and a Stanford graduate,” she looked up at Veronica, “now attending Columbia Law.”

“Me but not quite, because I didn’t accept Columbia.” 

“Yeah. Original endowment was fifteen million but it’s now got about twenty five. Original endowment is officially anonymous but rumoured to have come from either the estate of the late unlamented Aaron Echolls or that of his supposedly deceased son Logan.”

“Why the rumour?” Asked Veronica.

“Because Trina Echolls hosts an annual fundraiser for the Foundation. They have a few fundraisers each year, but hosts tend to change except for Trina,” replied Mac. Foundation investments are managed by William Lester and provides a healthy income stream. Andrew Mathis, a partner at the legal firm of Mathis, James and Cohen is the chairman. William Lester is also director, but never attends events or fundraisers.”

Veronica looked at Mac, “The last time I spoke to him, I told him to do something good with his life.”

Mac laughed at that, “I think he may have overachieved.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longest chapter so far. 
> 
> Break for me tomorrow.


	9. Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mystery starts to unfold and Logan travels to San Francisco

Logan

Logan made it to his eleven o’clock meeting at the Foundation with minutes to spare. He muttered a quick, “sorry, running late today,” and took his seat. The fortnightly staff meetings were casual affairs, with each of the leads giving a quick wrap up of their activities. Most of the staff had started when the Foundation relocated from LA to to Monterey when he decided to base himself there, not wanting to be too close to LA or Neptune. 

His lawyer had set up the foundation on his instructions while he was in Europe. He had been surprised to find out that rather than another trust fund tier opening up when he turned 21, as it had for Trina, the trust fund had wound up and he had inherited the entirety of his half of his father’s estate. Trina’s trust continued until she was 35, but his father’s lawyer confided in him that his father was rather old-fashioned (read misogynistic) when it came to women being able to manage money, but since Logan was a man, he would be fine. Logan thought that more likely his father had expected him to run through it all in a few years and end up destitute. 

Logan listened to the staff meeting half-heartedly, instead looking around the room at his colleagues, trying to determine who might be complicit in the diversion of funds. If, as he strongly suspected, Veronica had never received the upgraded scholarship and certainly wasn’t at Columbia now, that money was going somewhere else. He was pretty sure that the accountant was in on it, but who else? Andrew, the lawyer and chairman; the CEO; the fundraising manager; or the application assessments team leader. And how was he going to find out?

After the meeting was over, mercifully quickly, he went out to see if his sometimes surfing partner who also ran a nearby business was free for lunch. Jack was a generation older than Logan and in addition to running, with his wife, a fairly successful business in Monterey, he had been a surfer since his teens and generally joined Logan in the waves a couple of times a week. Logan valued his advice and thought he may be able to ask a few general questions that might give him some guidance on what to do.

Over lunch, Logan put his quandary to him, finishing with, “I’m just not sure how to start. Normally, I’d go to my lawyer, but I think he may be part of it.”

“You could get a new audit,” said Jack, “but as the foundation already has auditors, it would look a bit strange and may tip them off. You could go to the police and report possible fraud, but you don’t have a lot of evidence there yet. I think you may want to speak with a different law firm. Get some proper legal advice. Not a local firm, as most of your staff are local, but maybe Santa Clara or San Francisco. Maybe arrange to see someone when you go up on Tuesday to Berkeley.”

“That sounds like a pretty good idea. Any suggestions?” asked Logan.

“Annie’s actually gone up to San Francisco this afternoon to see our lawyer. We had some suspected fraud and they’ve been dealing with it to identify the culprit. The two hour trek is a bit irritating, but they have results already, so Annie’s pretty happy. Here, I’ll send you their contact,” and forwarded a contact to Logan’s phone.

“Thanks Jack. By the way, I won’t be at the poker game tonight,” referring to a monthly game Jack held. I’m catching up with an old friend,” thinking of Veronica.

Jack noted the smile on Logan’s face and said, “Maybe more than a friend?” as they got up to leave.

“I can only hope so,” replied Logan.

Logan returned to his office and had a look at the business contact, Andrea Main of Clarkson, Main and Associates. Thinking no time like the present, he dialled the number.

He wasn’t thrilled when the receptionist told him that Ms Main was unavailable for new clients next Tuesday but had an appointment free on Friday. Not wanting to wait that long, he thought he might look for a different firm and was about to decline when she said, “or she has had a cancellation this afternoon at four if you can make it.” Checking the time, he saw that it was just after one so he accepted, deciding to head out straight away.

As he headed out, he realised that he probably wouldn’t be back by seven to talk with Veronica so rather than risk it or have the conversation with her whilst driving, he called to book a hotel in the city. He detoured home to grab a change of clothes and his personal laptop and was on the road up to San Francisco before two.

Veronica

The client meeting went well. Veronica had confirmed that the head accountant for the firm under investigation was innocent, the pricey house she lived in having been inherited by her husband a few years earlier. The second in charge was the likely culprit, but they recommended a forensic accountant go through the books to confirm. There were no indications that the fraud was widespread through the accounts group. The client, Annie Maxwell, was not thrilled with the news, but happy resolution was looking swift.

Leaving the meeting, she checked her phone and saw a text from Logan. ‘Hi, I’ve had to travel up to San Francisco at short notice for a business meeting. I’m staying the night at a hotel, so I’m still on for 7ish, but we could meet in person. Totally up to you. L x.

Fuck, she thought. I don’t know. I’m not sure I’m ready for this. Should I call Mac? No, I’m a grown woman. I can figure this out. I’m not sure and if he’s at a hotel...No I’m sure he’s not thinking that. She took a deep breath, cleared her head and texted back, ‘Maybe not meet tonight. But I still want to talk and if you can stay in the city for a while tomorrow, maybe we could meet for coffee or lunch.’

‘Sounds good’ replied Logan a few minutes later, dictating his text while driving. Logan smiled ruefully as he continued up the highway. Coffee or lunch was progress, he thought. Dinner would have been better, especially with her those heels, and his mind started to wander until a horn honking outside the car reminded him he was on the road.

Just wanting to hear from her again, he messaged ‘Can I ask, in the interest of equality, which part of the Bay Area you live in?’

‘Well as it’s the interest of equality, San Francisco, Lower Pacific Heights’ she replied quickly.

‘Apartment, condo, house?’

‘Apartment’

‘Do you live alone?’ he asked, thinking it may be a bit risky, but she seemed to be playing along.

Misconstruing the question, Veronica read this and laughed. Talk about a rich boy question thinking she could afford a decent apartment in San Francisco on her own and answered, ‘lol roommate, lucky it’s just the two of us and not three or four in this city’.

Logan was heartened by the knowledge that she had a roommate, rather than a live-in boyfriend when she texted again, ‘why mathematics?’

Confused by her sudden change of subject, he replied, ‘as in the science of numbers?

‘As in at Berkeley’

‘You’ve already managed to get my college record? You work fast, Mars’ he teased.

‘Just answer the question, Echolls’

‘Just trying out a few things, expanding my horizons.’

‘You got an A!’

‘Why thank you for noticing’ he replied. 

She went quiet for a couple of minutes, then texted ‘Sorry, I have to get back to work now but we’ll talk later’.

‘Sure, at 7 as planned x’ he replied, satisfied overall with the exchange. 

San Francisco

Just after four, ‘William Lester’ was shown into the office of Andrea Main. He explained why he was there, that he was the anonymous donor who had endowed the foundation and that he was fairly sure money was being stolen in the guise of scholarships as he had recently had contact with one of the recipients who was supposedly at Columbia Law School, but clearly wasn’t.

“I think my lawyer, who is the chairman, is part of it. Probably the accountant too, as the payments have to be cleared somehow and would have to be covered well enough to get through audit. I just don’t know how to prove it,’ said Logan.

“So why not go to the police or even just confront Mr Mathis?” asked Andrea.

Logan sighed, “I don’t really have hard evidence, just knowledge that some things don’t add up. Also, Andrew has information about me which he knows I don’t want made public. It could put me and people I care about in danger and I am pretty sure lawyer client confidentiality wouldn’t beat out his self interest. I thought about hiring a private investigator, but I don’t know anyone trustworthy in the area and you were recommended by my friend Jack Maxwell.”

“Is there anything we need to worry about legality wise, Mr Lester?” asked Andrea.

“Please call me Will, and nothing illegal. It’s just, I was a bit wild in my youth and I beat up a member of a mob family after he hurt a friend of mine. Later, they came after me so I changed my name legally and Andrew helped by having the records sealed and setting up the financial arrangements. Then it was reported that I had died, and we just didn’t correct it publicly. I haven’t been declared legally dead, there are just no current records under my old name.”

“That’s a colourful past, Will. If you choose to go ahead with our services, we may have to verify parts of your story which will probably require you to provide your previous identity, but it might be best if I outline our options so you can consider if you want to proceed.”

“Sounds reasonable.”

“As I see it, Will, this would require a three stage plan of attack. Firstly, we need to determine to whom the money is being paid, if not to the intended recipient, and to determine if any other scholarships are being siphoned,” stated Andrea.

“I hadn’t thought of others, but it must be possible,” replied Logan.

“Yes, where fraud is concerned, it rarely stops at the first one. Secondly, you would like to settle this in such a way as to retain your concealed identity.”

“If possible, yes.”

And thirdly, I would advise you to as discreetly as possible dissociate your legal dealings from your existing lawyer if he is complicit in the fraud. We, of course, would love to acquire your business, and hope that acting for you in this matter will demonstrate our value.”

“That would be something I would consider as I have no desire to have my existence known any more widely than it is. This sounds like a good plan of attack. How do you propose gaining evidence of the fraud? I may be able get some records to you.”

We have a small in-house investigative team and would I would like to call them in to determine how best to gather evidence. We will need to have a clean evidential trail to prove fraud, and if you obtain the documentation, they may be able to cover their tracks or implicate you. I’ll just call one of them in so we can cover this quickly.” Andrea picked up her phone and dialled an extension. “James, are you free, I have a client who will need investigation services.”

Logan could hear murmuring from the other end of the phone and then Andrea said, “Sure, bring her too. She did a great job earlier.” Andrea turned back to Logan and said “two of our investigators will be here in a moment. Do you have the name of the recipient you said had not received the scholarship?”

Logan started to answer, “yes,” when there was a tap at the door. 

Andrea excused herself and called out, “come in.” The door opened and a tall black man walked in followed by a small blonde woman. 

Logan turned to see the newcomers found himself staring into the equally shocked face of Veronica.


	10. Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Revelations part 1

“Logan”

“Veronica” they spoke simultaneously, Logan standing to turn to face her.

Andrea, took a look at the tableau in front of her and, turning to the tall black man, said, “James, I’m sorry, but could we have the room please. James nodded and sensing the import silently walked back out, closing the door behind him.

She turned to face Logan, “you are, or at least were, Logan Echolls.”

Logan asked, “How did you know?”

Andrea gestured for Veronica to take a seat and Logan sat as well. “We vet our employees thoroughly, Mr Lester. Veronica’s name was associated with yours, and your fathers, relating to the Lilly Kane murder trial in 2006. Your name and picture still come up from time to time in news articles. You have changed, but not that much, although I would not have placed you if I didn’t know what I do and she hadn’t called you Logan.”

Veronica turned to Logan and asked, “Why are you here, Logan?”

“I came to get some legal advice regarding my Foundation. I think some of the staff are committing fraud, stealing, and I wanted to know what I should and could do. I didn’t realise this was where you worked. I’m also pretty sure my lawyer has not been carrying out my instructions, and I’m going to need to figure out how to extricate myself from him.” Turning back to Veronica’s boss, he said, “I’m sorry, Andrea, but while Veronica and I have known each other since we were young, we met this morning for the first time since, well before everything happened. There are things I need to speak to her about, without other people present, before we go any further. Believe me that nothing is Veronica’s fault but it concerns her and if we get this wrong both she and I may be in danger.”

“What the fu,” and remembering her boss was there and he was a client she corrected, “sorry, heck is going on Logan?” scrambling to regain a semblance of professionalism.

He turned back to face her and said, “This is part of what we were going to talk about later, but I’m not going to say it in front of someone else.”

Andrea looked at the two of them, taking in Logan’s look of consternation and Veronica’s slight deer in the headlights expression and cleared her throat. “I think at this point we need to call a pause on this consultation as it is clear there are some discussions which need to be had.” Specifically addressing Logan and being deliberately formal, she said, “Mr Lester, do you believe that at this moment there is any threat to yourself or Ms Mars?”

Logan took a breath, thinking before answering, “No. I think that while my past name remains secret, there is no new threat and so long as Andrew’s suspicions are not raised, he has no reason to reveal it and many reasons to keep quiet.”

“Very well, Mr Lester, as it appears there is no immediate urgency, I would suggest that you and Ms Mars have those necessary discussions and if you wish to proceed after, we can meet again next week. I am in court Tuesday, but I’m sure we can find time Monday or Wednesday if you desire to proceed without delay.” She turned to Veronica, “Ms Mars, it’s nearly 5 and I have to leave soon to meet someone. It might be best if you take Mr Lester to one of the meeting rooms for now. I trust you can see him out when he leaves.” At this she stood, gesturing to Logan and Veronica to rise.

Veronica looked at Logan thoughtfully, before saying, “Follow me” and preceded him out of the office. Although still reeling from the recent revelations, she had enough wits about her to remember to maintain her professionalism in the office. She led him down a corridor to an out of the way meeting room, walked in and closed the door behind them. 

Logan started to speak, “Veronica,” but she held up a hand to stop him as she walked to the window and closed the blinds. 

Sensing he was about to start speaking again, she said, “Wait” and walked towards him. Standing in front of him, she tentatively reached out and touched his face before wrapping her arms around him to hug him close, tight enough that he could feel the shuddering of her body as she let go and sobbed, her voice whispering, barely audibly, “You’re alive.”

Logan’s arms encircled her, gently rubbing her back as she wept, holding on as tight to her as she to him, enjoying the feel of her against him. They stayed like that for several minutes, until her crying receded and her breathing steadied. She let go and pushed at his chest until he released her and then she stepped back and looked at him with an accusatory stare. “You bastard,” she hissed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its a short one again, but I loved the end of this. Next chapter should be soon.


	11. Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan's Story Part 1
> 
> After meeting up again accidentally in the law office where Veronica works, Logan tells Veronica about what happened in his life after she left for Stanford.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit darker here. Warnings apply

"You bastard," Veronica hissed.

Logan threw up his hands in a surrender action as he exclaimed, “Shit Veronica. I didn’t know, I really didn’t know. I thought, and I know that it doesn’t make as much sense now but it seemed to four years ago, that you knew I was alive, but were cutting me off, not wanting anything to do with me." 

Veronica paced the room a little saying,”How could you think that, did you really think me so much of a bitch that I wouldn’t care about you?”

“No!” he exclaimed. “I wasn’t in a great place back then and, well I think I found it easy to believe that no one would care. When I saw you, and I can’t believe it was only this morning, I was stunned to discover you thought I was dead.” His eyes pleaded with her to believe him.

“Okay,” said Veronica, and then repeated, “Okay, this is a lot to take in and I get the feeling that there’s a lot more. Do you want to do this here, or somewhere less formal. I don’t think we want to be in public anyway and there’s no point reverting to the earlier plan. I have to admit I’m not so keen on having this much personal drama in my workplace.”

“Yeah, I get that,” replied Logan. “Um, I have a hotel room nearby, but I appreciate that might be uncomfortable for you. I haven’t actually checked in yet, but I could upgrade to a suite, something with a separate lounge if that would be okay with you."

Veronica thought on that for a moment and then realised she didn’t want to be in an anonymous hotel room to hear his story. She wanted familiarity, the comfort of home if this was going to be as hard to hear as she expected. She also wanted to be able to kick him out if she needed, not to want to flee as she had done so many times before. “No, come back to my apartment. We can have privacy there.”

“Are you sure, Veronica?” 

“Not entirely,” she confessed, “but I still want to do it. I’ll just grab my purse from my desk and we can go.” She led him out of the office, pointing him towards reception, before detouring to her desk to collect her purse and her laptop and joining him on their way out. 

Your car? He asked her.

“I didn’t drive,” she answered, “but if we get your car, I’ll give you directions,” and they headed back to her apartment. 

On the way he remembered their text exchange and asked her, “will your roommate be there?” 

“Don’t think so, she said she’d be out till at least 10ish. Meeting work colleagues for dinner,” replied Veronica, and giving me some space in the apartment alone when when I was supposed to be speaking with him she thought.

“Alright then.” Logan parked the Range Rover and followed her into a small apartment building. 

“We are on the third floor, so I don’t bother with the lift unless I’m loaded up,” she said leading him up the stairs. Opening the door, she ushered him in to a surprisingly nice apartment. A fair sized open kitchen living room space with small dining table and a big comfy couch. Two doors led off on either side of the apartment, which Logan assumed were bedrooms. Veronica spoke as she headed towards the kitchen. “Coffee? Or beer or wine? We have all three”

“Coffee would be fine,” he said looking around.

Veronica put a pot on, and headed towards one of the bedroom doors saying, “I’m just going to change out of my work clothes,” as she went through the door. She shut the door behind her and looked at her closet, uncharacteristically unsure of what to wear. Normally coming home from work she’d put on sweats and shed her bra, but didn’t think she was ready for that level of comfortable with Logan. Instead she kicked off her shoes and shed her work clothes before pulling on her favourite comfy jeans and a soft little black tee.

In the living room, Logan looked around, and seeing photos on a couple of walls, wandered over to take a look. One wall was all people. Photos of Mac and Wallace mugging for the camera, of Keith in a Santa hat asleep on a couch. Lilly and Veronica in bikinis on pool floats and a shot he remembered from that homecoming before Lilly had died, of Duncan, Veronica, Lilly and himself all dressed up at the Kane’s house. A pang of nostalgia hit him, and he was glad to see Veronica had the photo out in the open. A few other photos were on the wall, Veronica and Mac in caps and gowns with diplomas, Keith and a couple he didn’t recognise standing alongside. Mac’s parents he assumed. He suddenly realised that it meant that Mac had graduated from Stanford with Veronica. He wandered over to the other photos and saw these were artier shots. Some photographs of what he assumed was San Francisco and its architecture, a few landscapes, some he didn’t recognise but were similar to the coastline near his own home in Monterey and a single shot of a lone surfer riding a near-perfect wave. He looked closer and realised it was himself and he realised that she must have taken it during that idyllic summer between high school and college.

“I love that shot,” she said walking up behind him. “We were so happy that summer. And you were happiest of all at the beach in the waves.” 

“I was happiest of all when I was with you, Veronica.”

“Well sometimes I guess.” She responded, smiling.

“But you are right, I was happy. Probably the happiest I had been since Lilly died. Aaron was dead and I had you back. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good, you know.” 

“Yeah, I know.”

“I hadn’t been before, you know. I couldn’t remember a time before that when I felt happy, or to be honest, safe. Aaron was a monster, a predator, preying on my mother, on women, on Lilly, on me. But do you know why I never told anyone who might have helped.”

“You were protecting your mother," she surmised.

“Partly, but not only. Part of me believed he was right. He made me believe that I was so useless, so clumsy, so disrespectful, that he was right in trying to beat it into me. That I deserved it. He taught me to have contempt for anyone he considered ‘lesser’ than us, to expect everything we wanted as a right, but then beat me for not showing him the respect he considered he deserved. It didn’t matter whether I had actually done anything bad enough to incur his wrath, he would beat me anyway. Eventually I decided if I was going to pay the price, I may as well be committing the crime. Classic examples of victim mentality and acting out. After he was dead, I felt free for the first time in my memory and that summer felt miraculous. But then school started and I had to move on in my life and although the cage door was open, I found it hard to escape. Too entrenched in my coping mechanisms of alcohol and drugs, too needy, too unwilling to put any expectations or limits upon myself. Wanting you to have expectations of me but then fighting against them. I was a mess, Veronica. And I hurt you, and you hurt me and we had too much baggage and neither of us were capable of dealing with the fallout of Hurricane Echolls. You were right to leave, Veronica. I just wish I had been a better man back then.”

“So how did this,” and she waved at him, “happen? You’re not an entitled, unfocused dilettante now.”

He smiled ruefully at her description and said “Rehab, years of therapy and a realisation that just because some parts of my life were truly appalling, I can and should be grateful for the benefits my life has given me. I have wealth, health and privilege. Those gave me opportunities that others don’t necessarily get. But I’m jumping ahead, I promised you the whole story.”

“Let me get the coffee and we can move to the couch. May as well be comfy,” said Veronica. Five minutes later, she put coffee mugs in front of them both and settled herself on the couch, feet tucked under her, looking at him expectantly. 

Nervously, he started, “I think I need to warn you that some of this will be hard, ugly and there will be things I have done that you won’t like, that you will be angry about. There were always reasons and I would just ask you to hear me out. Get angry, yell at me, whatever you need, just let me get to the end and give me a chance to explain.”

“Okay,” she said simply. After all wasn’t that the reason she had brought him here. She was trying to avoid running from him this time around.

"So, after you left for Stanford, sophomore year, I kind of went off the rails. Drank a lot, partied a lot. Didn’t attend much school," he said. "Then along came the Russians. Gory Sorokin sent a couple of goons after me and they jumped me in the car park of the Grand. Beat me up, gave me a concussion and broke a few ribs. Would have been worse, but the assault was spotted by hotel security cameras and they called the cops and scared them away, but not before one of them said that it wasn’t over, it wouldn’t be over until I was dead. I wasn’t completely stupid, I hired a bodyguard, but I also got wilder. Veritable oceans of booze and drugs. Anything I could snort, smoke or swallow. I told myself I wasn’t an addict because I wasn’t shooting up. But the only reason I didn’t was because I’m needle phobic, can’t even touch the damn things.”

“I remember. You were even freaked out by the epipen thingy for your shellfish allergy,” she murmured.

“Yeah,” appreciating that by saying this, she was accepting his story as it was, so far. “Well everywhere I went I started seeing them, Gory and his henchmen, and the fear and the drugs making me paranoid. I think this was when I was calling you, after you left for Stanford, but I honestly couldn’t remember anything I said in those calls.” He looked up into her eyes, “and then I od’d the first time. Too much coke, too many sleeping pills, too much booze. Dick saved me that night. He found me, got the bodyguard and called 911 while the bodyguard made sure I didn’t choke, didn’t need cpr. Dick was a good friend. He could be a fairly loathsome human being, but he was a good friend to me then and he had his own demons. Tried to get me to slow down, to cut back, and I did for a while. Cut out the drugs anyway, stuck to booze. But it wasn’t too long before Hearst suspended me. They aren’t keen on students who don’t attend class and turn up roaring drunk on campus. So I left. Went to France, thought that maybe I could escape the paranoia there. But it just kept going and I fell in with the celebrity crowd, where every night’s a party on someone’s boat or villa and nobody ever has to think.”

He paused to take a sip of coffee and steady himself. She reached out instinctively, touched his hand and said, “It’s okay. You told me this wasn’t going to be pretty.”

Grateful for her reassurance, he plunged on, “The Russians turned up there too and this time they almost succeeded. One night, they drugged one of my drinks, in fact I think they drugged a lot of people at that party. Rohypnol. I passed out and then they shot me up full of heroin.” Veronica gasped, but Logan kept going, knowing he had to get this out quickly. “I woke in hospital, in icu where the police interviewed me. There were a lot of rich people on that boat who had been hospitalised, but I was the only od. Apparently we were lucky because although the owner of the boat was a useless rich dilettante, to steal your word, his crew were excellent and when they saw that the whole party was going south, they returned to port having called ambulances to meet the boat. The doctors administered Narcan in the ER. It was all passed off as accidental and the Russians got away with it by acting like part of the party, having a few drinks and a few of the party favours freely available.”

Logan continued, "I was forced to speak with a psychiatrist before they would discharge me. He told me to either go to rehab or to fuck off to South America or somewhere if I just wanted suicide by overdose. He was sick of seeing the rich and stupid throwing away their lives. I managed to convince him that I hadn’t taken the drugs myself as the drug screen they had done only had the rohypnol, heroin and a lot of alcohol. I convinced him I would never have shot myself up due to my needle phobia and the complete lack of needle marks on my body convinced him. He told me I still needed rehab for alcohol addiction and said he could arrange to get me to a very discreet facility in Switzerland quietly. No one would even know where I had gone. I went.”

“You just needed someone to care.”

He nodded, appreciating that she got it, got him. “I spent 90 days in the facility,” he told her, “another 6 months in a nearby town as a therapy client. Turns out, for me, that I had to deal with the past, with the spectre of Aaron, with the trauma of childhood abuse, with my mother’s suicide, with my own lack of self worth. Once I no longer wanted to escape from my life, the alcohol and drugs had less hold on me. I got through. Became, for want of another word, better. It’s a cliche, but I learnt and eventually really believed that while I can’t change or forget the past, I don’t have to let it rule my future.”

“That’s amazing Logan. I’m so proud of you, that must have been excruciating.” She spoke sincerely, the truth in her eyes and he had never loved her so much as he did at that moment, in her acceptance of him. “But when and how did you become William Lester?” she asked.

“That’s the next part of the story,” he said. “But could you point me to your bathroom first. And a glass of water would be good too.” He needed a break, just a few moments to regroup and steady himself.

“Of course,” she said quickly and jumped off the couch. “It’s an ensuite off the bedroom, through that door and to your left.”

“Thanks,” he said and got up, stretching as he moved towards her bedroom door.

Veronica went to the kitchen and got two glasses of water before noticing that it was already dark outside the window and saw it was past seven. Discovering she was actually hungry after pretty much eating nothing since she had seen Logan early that morning, she looked in the fridge for something they could eat for dinner, but saw nothing as she and Mac usually shopped on a Saturday. Deciding she needed sustenance and Logan could join her if he wanted, she ordered Chinese food, more than enough for two, no shellfish. When he came out of the bathroom, she told him she had ordered food for both of them if he wanted to join her, and it would be about 45 minutes delivery. 

He was touched, and grateful she had included him, and feeling steadier, sat down with her to continue his story.

“By the time I got to the rehab facility, TMZ had already run the story that I was dead. I just ignored it. So much of what they reported was bullshit anyway. I was incommunicado for the first month in there and by the time I got news from the outside world, I discovered that Trina had reported me missing, presumed dead. I ignored that too as just Trina’s dramatics. Then I found out that she had held a funeral for me. That was when I called my lawyer, let him know where I was, but that I didn’t want anyone informed. My thought was that if they thought I was dead, I would be free of Gory and his goons, and by then I knew I really didn’t want to die. My lawyer suggested I change my name, if I wanted to be really free of all the Echolls publicity. After all, I could always change it back. I realised that I didn’t just want to change my name, I wanted to get rid of it. He had a contact from law school in the diplomatic service who was posted to the US Embassy in Bern and arranged for me to meet with him. He came to me, as I was still residential in the facility. I spilled my story about Gory and his retribution, but how I had no evidence against him to prove anything. He said that my lawyer should be able to arrange the change of name in the States and to have the record sealed. Once that was done, he could arrange to have a passport issued in my new name. Nothing would be foolproof, but if I was smart and kept legal and clean and stayed out of the limelight, I shouldn’t be easy to find.”

“Okay,” she said and he could see she was itching to ask questions but was holding back. “Smart. Lester was your Mom's maiden name, wasn't it."

"Yeah," he said, surprisingly touched that she remembered. Then he decided to go for it, tell her something he had never even told his therapist. "And William, because Wyatt sounded too distinctive."

Quick as ever, she connected the dots, "Wyatt? William, ah, Billy. Easy Rider."

He smiled appreciatively and quoted, "Freedom, that's what it's all about," and she laughed.

“The next bit is where it goes wrong,” he said, wanting to keep going, to get it out. “I wrote letters, two of them, to people who were important to me, whom I wanted to know the truth. You, because I thought you would grieve for me and I didn’t want you to. And one to Dick, because he had been there for me when I needed him, had saved my life. I gave them to Andrew, my lawyer, to pass on to you.”

“I didn’t get a letter, Logan.”

“I realise that now. But at the time he told me you didn’t want anything to do with me, that you’d washed your hands of me. I was still vulnerable enough to believe it, to hurt. I went on a bender that night, my first lapse in sobriety since I had arrived at the clinic. But they picked me back up and helped me to realise that I didn’t need to live for you, I needed to live for me.” Logan looked at her, willing her to understand he didn’t blame her.

“So now you think it was your lawyer. That he didn’t send your letter to me. But why?” she asked.

“I think it’s to do with money, with my foundation. I think he has been stealing from it from the beginning and that you would have known. I had told him I was planning on asking you to be on the board,” Logan responded.

“Oh,” she said, reeling a little from this.

At that moment, the doorbell rang with the food delivery. Veronica got up, grateful for a few minutes respite from the emotional rollercoaster. “Can you buzz him in and I’ll grab plates. It’s already paid for,” she said. Logan got up and went to the door, whilst she went to the kitchen. Returning with the food, he saw she had set plates on the coffee table in front of the couch rather than the table and was back behind the island in the kitchen. “Would it bother you if I had a glass of wine with dinner?” she asked.

“No, that’s fine,” he said, “In fact, I wouldn’t mind that beer you offered earlier. But light if you’ve got it.” She looked at him in askance. “It’s okay, I promise," he said. "I was completely sober for a long time. Then about a year ago, I had an accident surfing, broke my collarbone. At the hospital they gave me pethidine and oxycodone before I realised it. I was petrified, waiting for the craving to start. But it didn’t. All I wanted was to get off it as it made my head feel fuzzy. I asked my therapist about it. He said, that possibly without the other triggers in my life, then the drugs didn’t have a hold on me. He said that he thought that contrary to popular belief, some addicts and alcoholics could develop a healthy relationship with the substance they had previously abused. I was skeptical, but thought about it some more and a couple of months later I decided to try. I bought a single light beer and drank it one night with a friend I trusted. And nothing happened. Didn’t want another, didn’t need another, didn’t drink another. Now I stick to the occasional beer or glass of wine with dinner and I don’t touch spirits. It actually makes me feel more in control, that I don't have to completely avoid it to be good.”

“Okay,” she said and got both drinks from the fridge. “Let’s sit and eat, and after dinner you can tell me the rest.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he said. “Let’s eat and after dinner I’ll tell you about Castaway.”


	12. Twelve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan's story part 2
> 
> Logan tells Veronica how he created Castaway and reveals his secrets.

“So tell me about Castaway,” said Veronica. Dinner was eaten, and Logan had helped her put the leftovers away and wash up the few dishes. It had felt all very domestic. More domestic than she had ever remembered Logan, but living in a hotel for more than a year hadn’t encouraged domesticity. This Logan bore little resemblance to the Logan of five years ago, except physically. 

She had always been physically aware of Logan. He was tactile, needed to touch and be touched. Lilly had hated it. She had been overt PDA, public tongue kissing, anything to shock and used to complain about his constant petting as she called it. Veronica had loved it. The discreet soft touches and his fingers lightly stroking on her hand, her leg, her waist. It had been a heady cocktail of seduction and reassurance and as sexy as hell. He wasn’t doing it tonight, which was understandable, but she had seen his hands twitch towards her at times at the more traumatic moments of his story and then pull back when he became aware. He had a lot more control than nineteen year old Logan and she reminded herself this wasn’t a romantic interlude.

His voice interrupted her train of thought, “The idea of Castaway came from a conversation with your dad.”

That floored her. “My dad?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Just after you left to go to Virginia for the FBI internship, he came to visit me. I was none too excited to see him, but there was a fair chance I was pretty drunk at the time. But he told me that he had asked you to leave Neptune permanently, that it was destroying you.”

“Why would he do that? We weren’t together then. I was still with Piz, at least in theory.”

“As I told him,” replied Logan, realizing he was happier to hear she had not really been with Piz then than he a right to be. “But he said we had this complicated history, and that he didn’t think Piz could keep you from going, but I could. Then he said that you needed a chance and so many of your chances had been taken away. That quote stuck in my mind and took root and I thought about how there are times in our lives, formative times when, if something goes wrong it can be hard to recover and a whole life can go off track. I thought how different, how much easier your life would have been if Lilly hadn’t died, hadn’t been murdered by Aaron.” He ran through the knock-on effects of that crime finishing by saying, “a domino effect if you will.”

She had known, of course, from Mac’s research earlier, the purpose of Castaway, but even though she had known he founded it because of what had happened to her, it was different and far more personal hearing it from him. Her automatic response was defensive, to say it hadn’t been because of that, but she swallowed that down because the foundation was good, doing good things for people who had been hurt and just needed a little helping hand.

Unaware of her internal struggle, he continued, “We provide a new chance, a replacement of opportunity you could say. Usually college scholarships, mostly partial but occasionally full depending on the circumstances. There have been a couple of business start-ups as well.”

“It’s amazing, Logan. You should be proud,” she said, noting that everything he said gelled with Mac’s research.

“Thank you. But now comes the harder bit, the bit you might not be so happy about.”

“Consider me warned. I’m warm and comfortable, I’ve eaten and it’s my apartment so I’m not likely to run on you Echolls. Just spit it out,” she said, feeling just a little proud of herself being able to joke about her past reactions.

“He closed his eyes and spat it out as ordered, “You were, or so I believed, Castaway Scholarship recipient number one.”

It clicked for her, “Stanford Graduate, now attending Columbia Law,” she said flatly.

His eyes opened in shock, “You know, you were offered it.” He felt a little sick.

“No, no Logan” she spoke quickly as she realised what he thought, “that’s what is on the website, where you have written about where your recipients are. It struck me how it sounded a bit like me, except that I didn’t accept Columbia.”

He looked relieved, saying “Of course you researched Castaway, you know what the website says.” And then the other thing she said registered. “Wait a minute, Columbia Law offered you a place and you declined?”

“Well deferred at least. I’m just not sure I want to go. Two reasons,” she said looking at him and holding up two fingers for emphasis. “One, it’s expensive. Even with student aid, I’ll end up in a lot of debt. I’ll end up in corporate law to pay for it and that’s not really appealing. Two, I just don’t know if I want to. It would make my dad happy but I think it’s more his dream for me than mine. I have to decide for the start of next years’ intake. But back to your problem, someone is stealing the money for the scholarship. I wouldn’t have thought it was enough money to tempt your lawyer.” Veronica asked.

“Yeah, that’s one of the things bothering me. But Andrea suggested it might not be limited to that scholarship, many fake scholarships make a tidier sum.”

“True. But it really should be relatively easy to prove. The money has to go somewhere. First rule of investigation, follow the money.”

I’ve been thinking about that. The foundation is independently audited and the auditors don’t raise any flags. So the auditors are being paid off or the money went through to Stanford and was then diverted and someone at Stanford was being paid off. Then they do it all over again at Columbia and possibly other colleges as well. It doesn’t quite make sense for the sums of money.”

“Too many people involved.”

“Exactly.”

“Alternative theory, the accountant is disguising the recipient account to look like Stanford or Columbia and wherever. If he’s smart, the disguised account will be different for each institution. If he’s not, they’ll be going into a single account. If it looks close enough to the real thing, it may be passing muster for the auditor. And he would have to be generating receipts that look like the real thing.”

“The foundation should have the receipts on file. I can probably locate them. I can go into the office this weekend and have a look around,” he mused.

“We can also contact Columbia on Monday, say there has been a computer glitch and we want to verify the payment. No payment means the money is being diverted,” she said. “What will you do if you do prove your lawyer is stealing. I mean, he could easily threaten to reveal your identity publicly. Is Gory Sorokin still a threat?”

“I would think so. After they came after me in France, I didn’t get the impression they were ever going to let it go. And will Andrew reveal my identity? I just don’t know. I would hope not, but if he’s been stealing from the Foundation, who knows what he would do. I could start over again if I have to, new name, new identity, new location but I really don’t want to. Not now, not with my work at the Foundation, with school,” not now I’ve just found you again he added silently. 

“We could find out if Gory is still a threat. Dad has contacts in the police and so do I for that matter. James, the senior investigator at Clarkson Main is ex FBI and has contacts there.”

“I don’t want you involved, Veronica,” he said.

“Finally you say something that actually does make me angry,” she retorted shortly. “Logan, I am already involved. I’m supposedly the recipient of the Columbia scholarship. I’m the person you beat Gory up for.”

“I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you because of me,” he spoke, almost in desperation.

“Well now you know how I feel,” she said, louder now, voice just below a shout. “How I’ve felt for five years” her voice hitched.

That stopped him short. “It wasn’t your fault Veronica. None of it was your fault.” She stood up, needing to move, to pace. He stood too, afraid she was about to run out on him and pleaded, “Please don’t run, Veronica.”

“I’m not running away, Logan, I’m pacing,” she said through gritted teeth. “This is my home, remember. If I want you gone, I’ll kick you out, but I’m not.”

Relieved she wasn’t running, Logan looked at her closely. “Why do I think there should be a ‘yet’ at the end of that sentence,” he said, hoping to lighten the mood.

“I’m thinking about it,” she replied. “Please sit down Logan, I want to say something but I just have to think about how to say it. Give me a minute to think.”

“Okay,” he said, and sat, unusually still for boy she remembered as always fidgeting.

After a few moments, she sat back down next to him, turning to face him square on and took his hands. “I understand what you mean when you say you couldn’t forgive yourself, because I felt like that. For a long time I blamed myself, but eventually I came to see that I wasn’t responsible, I couldn’t control your actions. And sometimes, the ‘my fault’ feeling returns. So I keep reminding myself that they were your choices. Your reasons were part of you and that if you hadn’t done them, you wouldn’t have been the man I loved.” She used the word deliberately, thinking of Mac’s observation just that morning, and saw his eyes light up and his hands tighten their grip on hers ever so slightly. Then she plunged on, “but you, and my dad as well for that matter, you want to protect me, keep me from harm and to do that you want to wrap me in cotton wool. But that doesn’t let me be me, be the person you loved.”

Logan started to protest, “Veronica…” when she stopped him by placing her fingers on his lips.

“No Logan, I get it, you’re worried. But just as you are not the irresponsible boy of five years ago, neither am I the foolhardy girl of that time anymore. I don’t run off investigating heedlessly. Here I work as part of a team. James is good and I mean really good. The other investigator, Roberto, is an ex soldier. He thinks all the time of the angles, of the risks and we don’t take any unnecessary chances. In fact we rarely take risks at all, and never without contingency plans and backup. I am learning so much here. I love investigating, Logan. Investigating is basically solving puzzles, solving problems and I’m good at it, really good at it and getting better. We won’t dive into this unprepared and we can investigate without your lawyer catching on.” She realised she still had her fingers on his lips and dropped them self-consciously.

Logan took a deep breath, his lips feeling bereft now her fingers were gone and looking at her face said, “You don’t ask for easy things, do you Veronica?”

“No one writes songs about the ones that come easy,” she said and looked directly into his eyes. 

They sat like that, eyes locked on each other for nearly a minute lost in memory. They were swaying infinitesimally closer to each other, neither willing to break the spell until Veronica’s phone buzzed with an incoming message. She jumped up off the couch saying awkwardly, “I just have to check that,” and grabbed her phone from the kitchen island. 

There was a message from Mac. ‘You ok? Need me 2 come home?’ 

Veronica replied, ‘All good. Still talking. Bit complicated.”

Mac: ‘I’m shocked.’

Veronica: ‘Do I sense sarcasm?’

Mac: ‘What makes you think that? Also I left a present on your nightstand. You’re welcome’

Veronica: ‘What?’ But there was no answer.

Logan stood too, needing to reorient himself while he thought about how close he had just come to kissing her. But he also knew that he wanted a lot more than a kiss, a lot more than a night in her bed. For years now he had been set about building a life. Now he wanted to build a future and for that, he had to come completely clean. When she put down her phone and turned back towards him, he said “there’s something else I need to tell you.”

“You have a girlfriend,” she said.

He looked at her confused, “What? No.”

“Then what?”

“Your original scholarship came from me. After your dad visited me, I set it up. It was anonymous but it was from me. It was only partial, because the trust didn’t have enough to cover it all. It was supposed to be replaced by the Castaway one if you accepted it or left in place if you didn’t. I was told you had accepted Castaway, but when I looked at the foundation figures earlier today, there were three annual payment entries for Stanford. I looked at the Columbia entries but there are only two entries. The third one for Stanford was labelled supplementary and was for the same amount as your original partial. They covered it up to me but didn’t short you in the process.” He blurted it out, like ripping a bandaid off.

“You bought me a place at Stanford?” she said, voice rising.

“No.” He said, a little insulted. “You already had a place. I remembered that you told me, in the summer before Hearst, that you had deferred. You weren’t quite ready to give up on your dream. I just had my lawyer arrange to offer a partial scholarship.”

“Why Logan, were you trying to get rid of me?”

“Your dad,” he sighed. “He said he’d asked you to leave Neptune, go to college somewhere else. I knew you would go for him, so I just wanted make it a little bit easier. It kind of felt like the only good thing I did that year.”

Veronica took a deep breath, “Right now I’m really really angry but also a bit touched. And note,” and she said the words slowly and very distinctly, “I am not running away. But I was never with you for money, Logan. I can’t take it, and I will pay you back.”

Would you have taken it from the Foundation? he asked.

“If I knew you had founded it, no. Still your money,” she replied.

“If you hadn’t known?” he said.

She was getting a little frustrated now, “I don’t know.” 

He followed up quickly, “What’s the difference?”

“For me, the knowing. I can’t take your money.” She answered back just as quickly.

“You were trying for the Kane scholarship, even when you were dating Duncan,” he pointed out.

“That was different. It was his parents, not him,” and realised it sounded a bit weak.

“This was Aaron’s money. It’s not like I earned it,” he was starting to enjoy the banter.

“Fuck you’re persistent. I’m sorry, I know it’s not entirely logical, but I can’t keep it,” she said.

“How about this. You start saving to pay me back and we argue some more about it later.” He countered, thinking there was no way he would let her return the money.

“I can work with that, for now,” she agreed, thinking she’d get Mac to hack his bank accounts to make the deposit if she had to.

“See look at us, talking it out like grownups,” he teased.

“Oh, I’m still angry, just not really really angry,” she retorted.

“That’s okay, you're really sexy when you’re angry.” He blanched when he realised what he had said, looked over at her and quickly followed up with, “Sorry, sorry, I got carried away.”

Now she was less angry, but a little turned on and she interrupted him, a mischievous expression on her face, teasing, “Logan Echolls, do you find me sexy?”

Surprised but emboldened by her response he decided to take a chance and stepping in front of her placed his hands at her waist and teased back, “Veronica Mars, are you flirting with me?”

She knew what was coming, wanted it desperately, but just couldn’t resist whispering, as she lifted her face to his, “maybe?”

He smiled as lowered his head and their lips met, the kiss tentative at first until her lips opened and her tongue flirted with the seam of his lips. His mouth opened and the kiss became incendiary. Her hands went around his neck and he pulled her body closer, moulding it to his. It was like coming home. He wanted to pick her up, have her legs wrap around his waist and lay her down on the couch, have her right then and there but he knew it was too fast and instead infused the kiss with all the longing he felt. When they broke for air he loosened his hold, trying to give her a little space, but she was having none of it. She murmured, “Please, just hold me,” and held on tight to him with her chin on his chest. Eventually she loosened her hold and taking his hand, started to lead him to her bedroom.

After two steps, he paused, and tugging on her hand said, “Hold on, I think this is going too fast.”

Lost in a fog of desire, she heard the words, but didn’t see his expression and said, “I don’t know, there’s a part of you that seems to think this is just the right speed,” eyes dropping to the front of his now overly tight pants.

He groaned, but held firm against the pull of her hand, “Veronica, there is nothing I desire more right now than to go with you in there and fuck you till morning.” Heat pooled between her legs at this and she almost missed his next words, “But it’s too soon. It’s not even been twenty four hours since we met again and its been incredibly emotional. We have this pull between us, always have I think, but I don’t want to have sex with you and then realise the desire between us tonight was just the result of emotional overload and memories.”

She looked at him incredulously, “You think I’d have sex with you for nostalgia.”

“No, but you can’t deny there’s a lot of emotional history between us and a lot of memories of incredible sex.” She looked at him in askance, and he decided to go all in, “This time, if I make it into your bed, I want, no I need to know that I’ll never have to leave.”

“Oh,” she said simply, overwhelmed by his words. She dropped his hand and moved back towards the middle of the room. He looked at her expectantly, unsure of what he would happen after his declaration. She made her decision and said, “So can we sit on the couch, talk and maybe make out a little.”

Relieved, he nodded and came towards her to join her on the couch. “I can’t believe you turned down sex, Echolls, she said.

Her teasing tone dispelled the last of his worries about having declared himself so quickly, “I can’t believe I turned down sex with you Mars.” Then, a little more seriously, “This is good though, right?”

She answered, snuggling in to him, “Yeah, this is good.”

They talked of college and their lives, San Francisco and Monterey until he felt her start to drift off and he held her as she slept, content.

A key turning the lock roused him from his own half sleep and he swivelled his head towards the door, careful not to wake Veronica. He was stunned to see Mac walk in and then all the clues fell into place. Photos of her on the wall with her family, how quickly Mac had texted him earlier in the day. Her roommate was Mac.

Walking over to the couch, she took in the scene and said to him, “You work fast, Echolls.”


	13. Thirteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Saturday Morning with Veronica, Logan and Mac

He kept his voice quiet, “Hey Mac, she’s asleep.”

“Hi Logan, looking good, and alive too.”

“Yeah, life is good. It’s not exactly how I meant her to find out. You either for that matter.”

“If she’s ok, I’m ok too. Is she ok?

“I think so. Still a lot to work out.” He paused a moment, “I should probably head off.”

He manoeuvred himself out from under Veronica and picked her up in his arms. Looking at Mac, he said, “Um, I was just going to carry her into her room. Could you maybe get her door.”

In her room, he lay her on the bed and covered her up, not before noticing an unexpected item on her nightstand. Not wanting to think about the little tin too much, he returned to the living room, shutting the door behind him. 

He turned around to see Mac looking at him. “Damn it’s good to see you again,” she said, coming towards him and wrapping her arms around him for a hug. “You were missed.”

That simple sentiment undid him, and he hugged her back, reveling in the warmth of friendship. In rehab, when he had decided to become William Lester and he had written the letters to Dick and Veronica, their supposed lack of interest in his life or death had hurt him to the core. After the abuse and abandonment from his parents, this had left him feeling as he was truly unlovable, just as his father had said so many times. Suddenly, this was all being turned on its head. People were not just surprised, but happy he was alive and he suddenly felt a wave of hatred for his lawyer. 

When she released him, there was a suspicious shine to Mac’s eyes, evident even in the low light in the room. “It’s late, you should stay,” she said. “She,” nodding towards Veronica’s room, “would want you to be here in the morning. Since I guess you’re not planning on sleeping in there with her, take the couch. It’s a decent pullout. I’ll grab you a pillow and blankets.”

“If you’re sure,” he said, suddenly unsure of himself, “that would be good.” 

“Yeah, it’s good,” Mac said. “I’d like a chance to catch up too but morning is soon enough,” and got him bedding for the pullout.

In the early hours just before dawn, Veronica dreamed. The dreams started out dark. She dreamed of Lilly, full of life and energy and wicked laughter. “I’ve got a secret, a good one,” and then that secret got her killed and she saw Lilly’s lifeless body next to the pool, Aaron leering over her. She dreamed of Logan next, of stolen kisses followed by shouted recriminations on repeat until his final epithet “Fuck you Veronica” rang in her ears. She roused slightly, whimpering a little before sinking into another dream, of his voice, his profile, and finally him standing before as he had yesterday in that café in Monterey. She woke fully this time, a little clammy from the dreams and noticing she was still in her jeans, realised he must have carried her to bed. She suddenly felt disappointed he wasn’t there with her.

She washed her face in the bathroom and changed out of her now sticky clothing into a sleep tank and shorts before heading out to the kitchen to get water. She stopped short, seeing Logan asleep on the pullout. In sleep his face was younger, but he slept restlessly, tossing and turning. She stared contemplatively at him while she got drank her glass of water in the soft pre-dawn light. She’d made one decision last night, that she wanted him back and this time they were going to work. This morning she made a second decision. He may have been unsure, but she knew what she wanted and she didn’t want to waste any more time. Heading to the pullout, she lifted the blanket and slipped in next to him. He didn’t wake, but drew her into his arms. Content she was where she wanted to be, she drifted off to sleep.

It was full light when she awoke, sun streaming in through the window. She was tucked in to Logan spoon fashion and his lips were cruising across the exposed skin at her neck while his hand traced lazy patterns on her hip. “Good morning,” he said, his voice low and sexy in her ear. “You weren’t here when I went to sleep.” 

“Complaining?” she asked.

“No, just wishing we weren’t in your living room, or that you didn’t have a roommate.” She turned her head and he kissed her, a long lazy morning kiss full of fun and promise.

“Oh for heaven’s sake, you two. There’s a perfectly good bed in there,” interrupted Mac, pointing to Veronica’s bedroom. “Remember the rules, no sex on the shared furniture.”

Veronica and Logan both lifted their heads to see Mac putting a coffee pot on in the kitchen. Veronica responded, “A rule I made, may I remind you after coming out and finding Alex lifting you up onto the dining table.” Logan ducked his head, smiling at their banter.

“I maintain, we were still fully dressed, Veronica.” Mac retorted, causing Logan to stifle a laugh.

“And so are we,” said Veronica.

“I beg to differ. I know he’s down to his boxers under that blanket and I’m not sure those pj’s of yours count as fully dressed.”

Veronica blushed and Logan whispered in her ear, “but they are very pretty,” while running his finger under the thin shoulder strap. 

Mac cleared her throat, “ahem, since I am hungry and there is nothing edible left other than coffee and leftover Chinese, I am going to head out to buy food. Maybe once I get back we could all go for an early lunch.”

“Thanks, Mac. Thanks. For everything.” Veronica spoke sincerely referring not only to food shopping but to the help and support from the previous day.

“Anytime V,” replied Mac and headed out the door.

Logan rolled her under him saying, “Where were we?” before lowering his lips to her neck. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation. One hand slid down to lift the bottom of her tank top and settle on her bare waist to stroke and tease. The other captured her hands and lifted them above her head. The stretch in her body lifted her breasts under the tank top so that her nipples brushed against the fabric, hardening against the slight abrasion. Veronica moaned and Logan’s eyes darkened at the sound. “Exactly what constitutes sex on shared furniture?”

“Pretty much whatever you were thinking of doing next.”

“I can think of a lot of things I’d like to do next,” said Logan.

Veronica laughed which slid into a moan as the hand at her waist slid up to graze the underside of her breast, “and I think we’re there.” She wriggled away reluctantly saying, “you are dangerous.” 

“You like it.”

“Yes, but last night you wanted to wait,” she said.

“And this morning I woke with you all tucked up next to me, soft and sweet. I assumed you decided that you want what I want. To start again and try our damnedest to make it work this time. If you’re in, I’m in, simple as that.”

“You don’t mess about, do you.”

“Last night, after you fell asleep, Mac hugged me, told me I had been missed and I realised I’ve had four years stolen, of thinking I was so unworthy that no one gave a fuck about me. I just found out that it was all a lie and I have no intention of wasting another minute.” Logan spoke passionately. “I want it all with you Veronica, so if that’s what you want too, I have no intention of waiting any longer.”

Silently blessing Mac as one of the best friends ever, Veronica looked at him and simply said, “I’m in,” and grabbed his hand.

As soon as the door was shut behind them in her bedroom, Logan stripped off his tshirt and Veronica gaped. His chest was definitely broader, abs more defined. She unknowingly licked her lips and he laughed, “like what you see?”

She nodded, and he picked her up and tossed in the middle of the bed, climbing on top and kissing her as one hand picked up where it had left off, sliding under her tank to her breast. He deepened the kiss as he cupped her breast, lightly rubbing his thumb over her nipple, feeling how taut and aroused it already was. She had one hand behind his neck, holding him in the kiss, the other skating down his abs to his waist, playing with the band on his boxers. “Hold on,” she murmured, taking hold of him and rolling so she was on top. She quickly took advantage of the situation, stripping off her tank to feel his heated skin against hers. He levered up, took one breast in his mouth and palmed the other alternating swiping his tongue and his thumb across each nipple. She moaned and he switched breasts, wanting to taste all of her skin. 

His hands shifted to grab her ass as he continued sucking on her nipple, and he was surprised and delighted to discover when he slipped a couple of fingers under the hem of her shorts that she was not wearing underwear and she was already wet. He rolled her on to her side and started kissing his way down to her navel before he was stopped by a thought. He looked up at her face and said, “Condoms are in my bag out there, I’ll just go.”

She stopped him, saying “in the nightstand, second drawer.” He nodded and started to reach over. Opening the drawer, he opened the condom box and pulled out a strip, but as he started to move back, his eyes lit on the little Altoids tin on her nightstand he had seen earlier. 

“Do you mind if I? and he nodded at the mints. 

She swiveled to look at what he was indicating, and seeing the mints she blushed, saying, “Um, Mac said she had left me a gift.”

Logan laughed, “Have you been telling secrets, Miss Mars?”

“They’re not that much of a secret, but there may have been some mention. I didn’t really expect to see you again.”

“It’s ok Veronica,” and he nodded to the tin again. “But you want?

Knowing what he meant she nodded and he opened the tin. Coming back to her, he kissed her again and she could feel slight tingle on his tongue. Pushing her on to her back, he kissed his way down her torso, slowing to play with her breasts again momentarily before sliding further down. Hooking his fingers into the band of her sleep shorts, she lifted her hips slightly and he slid them down her legs. He kissed his way back up from ankle to knee and trailed hungrier kisses up one thigh and then the other as her legs opened wider. He reached her centre and ran his tongue teasingly over her slit before sliding first one and then two long fingers into her and gently tonguing her clit.

“Logan,” she moaned at that first touch and he backed off a little, gently circling her with his tongue as she moaned again, one hand on the back of his head holding him close, the other clutching the sheet as if her life depended on it. Her knees bent as she brought her heels up to dig into the mattress as he slowly pumped his fingers out and in. Feeling how close she was, he swiped his tingling tongue across her again and held pressure and she screamed as she came, clamping down on his fingers as she pulsed. Replacing his tongue with his thumb he held gentle pressure on her as she rode out that first orgasm before withdrawing his hand to remove his own boxers and roll on a condom.

Her eyes were still closed as he rose up to hold himself above her and he kissed her gently so she could taste that curious mix of mint and herself on him as he slowly slid into her. He rocked back and forth a couple of times until he was seated fully in her and looked up into her now open eyes. He moved slowly at first, setting a rhythm that she caught and then led, her body urging his to increase the speed and power of his thrusts as she chanted, “more, more.” He changed angle and she gasped as he hit her inner nerves and his thrusts were coming hard and fast now winding her tighter and tighter until she broke. He kept going, one, two, three more thrusts until he came shouting her name. 

It was a couple of minutes before either of them moved, until Logan realized he was lying on top of her and rolled them to on to their sides, holding her close. Neither of them spoke at first, but Logan was stroking her face and hair before kissing her. When he pulled back, Logan uttered “Wow,” and Veronica laughed, enormous smile on her face. Finally pulling out, Logan rolled away to remove the condom and headed for the bathroom to dispose of it. Returning, lifted the covers over them as he slid in next to her and she smiled noticing how he remembered she liked the covers after sex, how she felt a little self-conscious.

Remembering Mac, Logan asked, “how much time do we have before Mac gets back?”

Veronica leaned over to look at the bedside clock and groaned. “About twenty minutes if she’s taking her time, or five if not. I’m sticky and I need a shower and so do you, separately if we want to get out to lunch with her.”

He complained good-naturedly but understood how important this friendship was to Veronica as well as to him and said, “you go first, I’ll just grab my bag from the other room.” They showered and changed, and when they came back out to the living room just as Mac arrived back, she was grateful to see that Logan had fixed the pullout and tidied his bedding while she had been in the shower. 

Mac looked at Veronica with assessing eyes as they put away the groceries together and Logan made coffee. “Guessing that pullout isn’t going to be needed again in a hurry.”

Veronica successfully fought off a blush, agreeing, “probably not.”

They sat at the table with coffee and Logan filled Mac in with an abbreviated version of the story he had told Veronica the night before. At the end, Mac summarized for him, “So in order of seriousness, you still have to hide from a murderous mobster, your lawyer is an asshole who needs to be fired but carefully and he and possibly others are stealing from your foundation. So after lunch, and I do insist because I am starving, we can see if there is anything I can help with,” wiggling her fingers for emphasis.

As they stood up to head off to lunch, Veronica turned to Mac and said, “and Mac, thanks for the gift. It was,” and she paused looking up at Logan, “exhilarating,” and walked out the door, leading a furiously blushing Mac and laughing Logan behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haven’t written a sex scene before.


	14. Fourteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan and Veronica travel to Monterey

Lunch was fun. It was, Logan observed, just like three old friends catching up for a meal. He hadn’t realised how much he wanted this, the ease of old friendships, even though they were being careful not to refer to him as Logan in public. He laughed when Mac recounted the story of Veronica flying to Neptune the last Thanksgiving of college but her luggage not making it and wearing clothes she had left behind at her dad’s. “She spent the entire weekend in those ultra low rise jeans and tiny t shirts she used wear,” said Mac chortling at Veronica’s discomfort.

“I don’t know, I was rather partial to those,” he said, playing along, “especially when every time you moved, a little strip of skin above your jeans were exposed. Ah, the stuff teenage boys dreams are made of.”

“You perv,” cried Veronica, all mock outrage.

“Well yeah,” he responded equally good naturedly, “teenage boy. The two are synonymous. And speaking of which, hey Mac, I am a little shocked to see that ‘Grade my ass’ is still going strong.”

“Hell, I forgot about that. It kind of is and kind of isn’t,” she said.

“Well since the cheques keep coming in, I had assumed is, but now you have piqued my curiosity.”

“It’s a long story. Sophomore year, before I transferred up to Stanford, it was a hard year you know,” referring to the bleak time that had characterised Logan’s downward spiral and supposed death, “and my sophomore year roommate was always complaining about the grades she was getting for papers. I just kind of dreamed up this idea to keep myself distracted. I built this new website, ‘Grade my paper’. You load your paper in and the algorithms use grading rubrics and past paper marks to check it and it tells you the grade you’re likely to get. It started slow but is pretty popular now. We added plagiarism detection, as loads of colleges expect that all the time anyway now and expanded to provide a premium service where it will show you what you can do to improve your paper. We’re careful to make sure it’s legit. It won’t write the paper for you but it will tell you if your paper’s lacking depth, needs stronger arguments, that sort of thing.”

“I’ve actually used that website myself, but where do I come in again?”

“You made me a fifty percent partner in GMA, but it was your idea and since I used it to springboard this website, I cut you in. Thirty percent. Business statements and all that stuff go to your lawyer. It’s been good. Has paid for a chunk of the apartment but it’s got a limited life span as there are a bunch of competitors now. We’re hoping to sell.”

What will you do then?

“Oh, that’s not my regular job. I do information security now,” she said, but he looked quizzical. “You know, make sure companies are set up to avoid being hacked, test defences, that sort of thing. Mainly midsized online retailers and small financial services companies at the moment, but we’re getting bigger. I’m good at it, and it’s fun. There are six of us partners in the company. We met at Stanford and set up after we graduated.”

Logan mused a moment before looking at the two of them and saying, “So an investigator and a computer hacker. Some things haven’t changed that much since high school.”

That quieted the conversation for a moment as they realised how much he had changed since then until Veronica took his hand in hers and bringing it to her lips said, “none of us are the quite the same.”

“Although speaking of Neptune High,” said Mac, addressing Veronica, “did you remember Wallace is arriving this Thursday night?”

“Shit, no. We’ll have to figure out what to tell him, if anything. But that will be up to you,” she said, looking at Logan. “It’s your secret to tell.”

“You still tight?” he asked, not surprised when both of them nodded. “Then we tell him. He would have known already if this whole exercise hadn’t got so fucked up in the first place.”

Back at the apartment, they went over the case information again. Veronica decided she would run his lawyer and the foundation accountant through the PI databases and see what she could find. Logan and Mac went through the board papers and financials that Logan had available to see if they could figure out if there were any other suspicious scholarships, and they compiled a list of names cross checked to colleges, but without full access to the accounts, there was little more they could do. 

Veronica didn’t turn up anything suspicious on the lawyer or the accountant. “If they are stealing, they’ve set up anonymous accounts to receive the money. Accountant is married, a couple of kids. One a high school senior, one a sophomore at college in Florida. And your lawyer is an optimist. He’s on his third marriage. First wife had money, paid him a settlement when the marriage ended. Second wife had a teenage child from a previous marriage. They divorced three years ago, he pays alimony and she now lives in New York. Third wife is younger, not quite thirty. Looks like she is a kindergarten teacher, which is not what I was expecting.”

“I’ve met her. She was sweet. I was invited to the wedding,” said Logan. “It was in LA so I didn’t go. Sent a gift.”

“Why did your lawyer invite you to his wedding?” asked Mac. 

“I think it was in my capacity as being a director on the Foundation board. We all got invited.”

Mac’s phone beeped and she checked. “Alex has landed. And that reminds me. He is supposed to be coming here tonight. His flat mate is doing a romantic home-cooked dinner for two with his girlfriend and Alex asked if he could make himself scarce here tonight.”

“Can Mike even cook?” asked Veronica, referring to Mac’s boyfriend’s roommate.

“I don’t actually know. But Alex said he has been watching cooking videos on YouTube all week. You know you’ll need to come up with a cover story for ‘William’ here. None of our San Francisco friends are going to buy you, of all people, falling head over heels into bed with anyone you just met. We are an incestuous lot for knowing each other’s business so much.”

“Head over heels into bed?” asked Logan, amused.

“Can you think of a better description?” replied Mac. Logan could, but stayed silent. Some things needed to be said in private.

“I’m choosing to ignore it,” said Veronica. “But, you’re right. We need a cover story and it will be simpler if we keep it close to the truth, but we should probably avoid any references to Neptune.”

“How about I’m an old flame you ran into in Monterey last week,” suggested Logan.

“That works,” replied Veronica. “We could say we dated when I first transferred up to Stanford, but you had to leave for family reasons. That will avoid Neptune questions and it should work, as I don’t have any friends here in San Francisco from sophomore year anymore.”

“I was going to ask if you wanted to come down to Monterey tonight, Veronica. That would get us out of Mac’s way for now and, I kind of want to show you where I live. We could come back tomorrow night or early Monday morning. I need to be back here Monday to talk to Andrea anyway,” said Logan.

Veronica thought for a moment before replying, “I’d like that.”

Mac looked from her to Logan and back again and realised she was going to have to do the friend duty before they left for Monterey. She got up from the table and said, “Um, Vee, can you help me with my hair straightener thingy before you go.” She knew it sounded lame, but willed that Veronica would understand as ‘can you help me with my hair’ had been their code developed over years of sharing dorms and apartments. It was the all purpose ‘save me from this boor / that guy is a player / are you sure you know what you’re doing’ escape message. 

Veronica looked at her quizzically but said, “sure,” and followed her into Mac’s bedroom.

“I just want to ask you if you’re sure about this, cause it seems to be moving really fast,” said Mac.

“I know. I was worried about that at first, but, I’ve always loved him, Mac, and he loved me. I know it’s risky, but I really want to try again. Neither of us are as fucked up as we were back then, so hopefully we won’t explode when something goes wrong.”

“I though you would probably say that, but I still had to ask,” said Mac.

“I know. And thanks for caring.”

In Logan’s Range Rover on the way to Monterey, Veronica leaned back in the seat and contemplated Logan’s profile. 

“You’re staring,” he said.

“How did you end up in Monterey?” she asked.

Logan smiled and said, “surfing. When I came back to the states, I had already started at Berkeley so I had a look around Oakland, but I wanted the coast. One of the things stressed in rehab, in therapy that resounded for me was the importance building good habits. The things that keep me grounded and stop me from getting lost in my own head sometimes. My go-to’s are the ocean and exercise. So I found a house on the ocean near some great surf breaks, but I have a decent gym set up and I go running as well.”

“It shows,” she answered. “Why Berkeley, though”

“That’s a story. I knew I wanted to go back to college, get back on track as they say even if I had never really been on track in the first place. I had good SAT’s but my GPA at both Neptune and Hearst wasn’t much and I wanted to keep as few people aware of that William Lester was Logan Echolls as possible. My mom’s sister, my Aunt Naomi is married to a professor at Berkeley and she never much liked Aaron anyway so I got into contact with them. They are the only other people here in the states who know. Uncle David offered to put it to the Dean himself. I did my first year with online only. I was on academic probation and if I averaged a B and stayed clean, I would get a full enrolment. I did it, a B+ in the end, found I liked it and I’m nearly through sophomore year now. I’ve stayed away from campus for the most part, too many triggers,” he explained. “Plus it’s like I’m old now on campus,” he added with a wry grin.

“Well it all seems to be working for you. Have you ever been back? To Neptune?” she asked.

“No. I thought I had nothing to go back for, and too many risks of someone recognising me.” I even avoid LA if I can help it. I went to New York last new year. I thought that was where you were and I just wanted to be in the same city. I should have just come here,” he mused.

“I wasn’t here either. Neptune visiting Dad. I spent new year at a party with Mac and Alex, Wallace and some of Wallace’s teacher friends at one of their places.”

“Wait, Wallace is a teacher? I thought he was studying engineering,” said Logan in surprise.

“Yeah. You know he went to Uganda the first summer I went to the FBI. It really affected him. When he came back he changed track and decided to become a teacher,” she replied.

“Don’t tell me he teaches at Neptune High.”

“ I won’t tell you, then,” she joked. “He teaches Math and coaches basketball. But he’s coming up next weekend to look at a graduate program to do his masters. I’m not sure he will come here to study, but this is a good excuse for him to come visit us, Mac and I that is.”

“That sounds good. He staying at your place?”

“He is,” she confirmed. “The pullout is his next weekend.”

“Well it is fairly comfortable, but it was a lot nicer waking up this morning than when I went to sleep,” remembering waking up with her tucked into him.

“He doesn’t get the deluxe option,” she said, also remembering the morning.

“Good to know. Seriously, do you want me to stay away this weekend. I don’t want to but I will if you want,” he said.

“Maybe just Thursday. We can tell him the news before we spring you on him in person,” she suggested.

“Works for me. I have an English paper due Friday, so I could come up after I submit it and join you for the weekend,” he replied.

“It’s going take a bit of getting used to, this responsible Logan.”

“Hey, I did my assignments at Hearst.”

“You did,” she agreed. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t fair.”

“It’s okay, that’s about all I did. I didn’t really know how to be responsible back then,” he said.

“Well thank you for graciously letting me off the hook,” she said with a smile. “So apart from school and the foundation, surfing and getting buff, what do you do with yourself?

“Getting buff keeps me pretty busy,” he grinned, “so there’s not a whole lot of spare time. But I have friends, go out occasionally.”

“Tell me about your friends.”

“Mostly surfers, a mix of ages. Longest friendship is Jack. He’s a bit older, would be our parent’s age. He has a surfwear manufacturing business based in Monterey. That rang a bell for Veronica, as Logan continued, “Jack and his wife Annie are neighbours.”

“Jack and Annie Maxwell?” asked Veronica. “They were our clients.”

“Yeah. Makes sense actually. It was Jack who recommended Andrea.”

“They were why I was in Monterey. I was ‘Veronica Main, office temp’ looking for evidence in their office for them. It’s easier to snoop when you’re not the boss.”

“Undercover work?” He asked, with just a slight catch to his voice.

She caught it, though, “Logan, it’s what I do and I’m good at it, remember. We are also professionals. Before anyone goes in we assess the players, the threat. Jack and Annie’s office is as low risk as it gets. I even got invited to drinks after work.”

“Okay. Note to self, I have to trust you to do your job. But bear with me. It’s going to take a bit of time for me to adjust that you’re not the teenager I remember either. I may need reminders.”

“I will,” she said.

“Um, this is a bit more awkward.”

“What,” she asked, suspiciously.

“There’s a girl, in Jack’s office,” he started before she interrupted.

“You said you didn’t have a girlfriend,” she said accusingly.

“I don’t. It’s not like that,” he jumped in. “She’s a friend. We occasionally get together, if we’re both not in a relationship, it’s just casual. That’s one of the things, no using the other to cheat. I saw her Thursday night when she was out with a group, but not for sex. Not for maybe eight, ten weeks. She has a boyfriend at the moment. Now I’ll tell her I have you.”

Veronica had a sudden urge to claw the unknown girl’s eyes out, but she knew it wasn’t fair. Then something clicked in her brain, “Evelyn?”

He glanced over at her, surprised, “How do you know her name?”

“I met her at Jack and Annie’s office. She’s gorgeous. And smart and funny. She invited me to drinks. Why aren’t you dating her?” she asked.

“We did, for a little while, when I first arrived here. But she said she could tell I wouldn’t fall in love with her. That I was sad inside and I missed someone special. She said she wanted to keep looking for her Mr Right, but we should be friends. I realised she was right. And we became friends. Then she told me the sex was good, so she wouldn’t be averse to me being ‘Mr right now’ occasionally in a dry spell.”

“Fuck, I’m jealous. And a bit happy, you know that she’s your friend but not your girlfriend. It’s confusing,” said Veronica. “And I’ve just realised that I saw you, Thursday night at the wharf side bar. I was just leaving and I thought I saw you, but someone called out Will and you turned away. I thought I was going a bit nuts. I kept hearing you and thinking I saw you that day.”

“So if I’d been five minutes earlier, or if you had stayed five minutes longer, we’d have seen each other at the bar,” said Logan

“Probably best we didn’t. I was still working. And that would have ended up as one doozy of a public argument.”

“Or maybe we would have gone back to my place for incredible sex.”

“Uh uh. I was pretty angry . I didn’t cool down until after I had looked you up, William Lester,” she retorted.

“Maybe incredible angry sex?” he joked.

“She laughed, “you’ve got a one track mind.”

“About you, definitely,” he answered honestly. “Look, I only mentioned Evelyn because you had been in Jack and Annie’s office and I didn’t want you blind-sided if we ran into her and we are friends. Trying for full disclosure here.”

Veronica paused for a moment, then said, “You were right. Thank you even though it wasn’t that easy to hear. Any other exes I need to know about?”

“No. There are a couple of exes but they weren’t very long relationships. Never fell in love. You?”

“The same. No friends with benefits though. One relationship senior year lasted about nine months, he was a junior, and went home for the summer to an internship and screwed his high school girlfriend. I wasn’t heartbroken. I believe they have a kid now.”

“So, you still have a thing for younger men,” he joked.

“You are only a few months younger than me thank you very much. And I dated Leo, he was older.”

“You were seventeen and a high school junior. He was a police deputy. That says more about him than you,” he said

“He was barely twenty. And I stopped dating him after you kissed me.”

“I’m pretty sure you kissed me first.”

“Potato, potahto,” And she leaned back into the seat and smiled.

Logan’s house was gorgeous, Veronica thought. It wasn’t huge, not a mansion like he grew up in. Big open living spaces with a view at the ground level. A deck, an infinity pool and a spectacular view outside. A pool house with the living room set up as a gym off to the side. He took her upstairs where there were three bedrooms including a huge master bedroom in navy blue, white and deep rich wood furniture. She walked to the doors that opened out on to the balcony. He dropped her bag on a chair near the closet and walked up behind her, nuzzling kisses to her neck as he reached around her to open the doors to let them out. “This is beautiful,” she said gazing out as the sun was just starting to fall.

“It certainly is,” he answered, looking down at her. “I have been fantasising, the whole trip down, about making love to you here in my bed as the sun goes down.”

She turned in his arms to face him and spoke, “take me to bed, Logan.

He stared at her hungrily before picking her up and carrying her inside to the big bed, hooking shut the balcony door behind them. He sat on the bed with her standing in front of him and she leaned forward to kiss him as one of his big hands steadied her waist while the other danced up her torso. Theirs mouth broke apart and she murmured “off, off,” and he obliged, lifting her shirt and pulling it over her head. She laughed. “I meant yours, but this is a start,” she spoke a little breathlessly as his eyes darkened at the sight of her delicate, lacy, barely there pale pink bra, and his head dipped to take one lace covered nipple into his mouth. She moaned, and taking matters into her own hands, undid the buttons down the front of his shirt and pushed it off his shoulders. He helped her by shedding the shirt before his mouth returned to her breasts and his hands dropped to the waistband of her pants. “Zip on the side,” she ground out as she skated her hands over his broad shoulders, his back wanting to feel his skin. 

Unzipping her pants, he pushed them off her hips, letting them fall to the floor and ran his hands over her hips and across her ass cheeks exposed by the tiny pale pink thong. He pushed back and looked at her, skin faintly flushed almost the same shade as her lingerie and said, “you’ve been wearing that all day?”

“Uh huh,” she murmured, revelling in his gaze. “I kept hoping you might take a peek.”

He groaned. “it’s probably just as well I didn’t,” he responded. “I may have struggled to keep the car on the road if I had been thinking of this. It’s very, very sexy.”

“I feel very sexy around you. Stand up a moment,” she said, lowering her hands to his waistband as he did. She undid the button and zip on his jeans and pushed them and his boxers down his legs, dropping to her knees as she did. He was already hard and ready and she stroked one hand down his length while taking his head into her mouth.

“Fuck, Veronica,” he ground out, almost coming embarrassingly quickly at the feel of her hands and mouth on his cock. “Hold on a moment,” he groaned and she paused to look up at him. He went on, “as much as I cannot believe I am turning down a blow job from you, but what I really want right now is you, on top, riding me while the last rays of sunset stream across your fucking gorgeous body. 

Surprised, touched, because that sounded incredibly romantic, she gave him one last lick and stood up before climbing up on top of him on the bed. He reached over to the nightstand and opened a drawer to pull out a condom which he handed to her. She tore open the package and rolled it on him, “do you remember the first time you got me to put a condom on you. I did not know what to do and mangled it so bad,” she whispered, strangling a laugh as he ran his hands up her thighs to knead her ass. 

“Uh huh,” he murmured back, sliding one hand between her thighs, feeling how wet she had become. “I was worried I might run out of condoms before you got it right.”

“You didn’t say anything,” she said, back arching at his touch.

“No way I was saying anything that might have you stop touching my cock,” he replied, before saying, “as pretty as this is, it has got to go,” and he tore the thin lace thong off. “I’ll get you a new one, or maybe ten.”

She rose up on her knees, uncaring at the loss of her underwear, and positioned herself above him as he moved his hands to her waist. She dropped a little, taking his tip inside her, before sinking down slowly and smoothly to engulf him completely as they both moaned. She reached around to unclasp and strip off her bra and, gloriously nude, she rode him in the last rays of the setting sun.


	15. Fifteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A twist in Monterey

15

Veronica woke alone in Logan’s bed, enjoying feeling the little twinges and aches in her well satisfied body as she stretched. Logan had whispered to her a little while earlier that he was heading out surfing and to help herself to anything if she got up before he got back. She was weighing up the options of just staying naked in his very comfortable bed or getting up to make coffee when he came out of the bathroom, towel slung around his hips.

“Hey there, did you decided not to go surfing after all.”

He laughed and said, “lazybones, it’s nearly eleven. I’ve been and come back.”

“Mmm, I needed the sleep. Someone kept me up all night,” she said, sitting up.

“You’re just too tempting,” he replied as he leaned down and kissed her. He then spoke quietly next to her ear, “last night, the first time when you were on top, riding me. Sexiest thing I have ever seen,” and kissed her.

Thinking it was the sexiest thing she could remember doing, she reached up to put her arms around his neck and pulled him down on top of her. 

“Hold on, hold on, is sex all you ever think about?” He laughed.

“You brought up last night. What’s a girl to think?”

“It’s hard to resist when you’re naked in my bed.” He rolled on to his side, pulling her with him. “Ah, I was surfing with Jack this morning and he invited us to lunch with himself and Annie. Are you interested? I said I’d have to check with you first.”

Veronica hesitated, unsure about meeting Logan’s friends, “do you want to?”

“Yeah, I would kind of like to, but we can leave it for another day if you prefer.”

“No, it’s fine. Sounds good, I’d like to meet some of your friends.”

“You know you have already met Jack and Annie,” he said.

“Yeah, but that was as an investigator for their law firm, not as your girlfriend,” she replied.

“My girlfriend, you say,” he said, perking up.

She smiled, “That is what we are doing here, right. You boyfriend, me girlfriend.”

“I was just thinking how good that sounds. There’s something else that could sound good. Marry me, Veronica.”

“What?”, she pulled back to look at him, astounded.

“You heard me, marry me,” and moved in to nuzzle her neck. 

She touched his head, pretending to check it over, “no, we’ve been back together for like, one whole day. Are you crazy? Did you hit your head when you were surfing?”

“Nope,” he said, continuing to kiss her neck

“You’re serious? You know I never want to get married,” she said.

“Yes, and yes,” he replied.

“So why ask?”

He pulled back from her neck to speak to her. “Because I’d like to marry you, one day. But I know you don’t want marriage. So I figure if I start asking now, and I keep asking, one day you might change your mind. I don’t want to miss my chance.”

“Am I hearing this right? You’re going to keep asking me to marry you, and one day you expect me to say yes,” she said, a little bit riled, now. “Isn’t that a bit presumptuous?”

He took her hands looked her in the eyes and said, “not expect, Veronica, just hope. And even if I’m still asking when we’re eighty, that’s good because we’re still together, and that’s what I really want.”

Her eyes had become suspiciously bright. “When you put it that way, I can’t be pissed with you, can I?” and she kissed him. “I’m a bit worried because you’re a little bit too perfect.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll find something to fight about soon. We are still us, after all,” he answered matter of factly.

She laughed and then asked, “What time is lunch?”

“Half past twelve.”

“Well that gives you time to do some convincing,” and pulled off his towel.

The Maxwell’s house was a few houses down, so they walked down the beach hand in hand, and Logan pressed the buzzer on their gate. Annie came and let them in welcoming Logan with a kiss on the cheek. “Hello Will, hello Veronica. We were so surprised to find out you knew each other. It’s like a movie or novel or something.”

“I was as surprised as you, but it was wonderful to find her again after such a long time,” replied Logan, putting an arm around Veronica’s waist.

Annie spoke to Veronica, “it must have been quite a shock, to literally run in to him down here.”

“It certainly was,” agreed Veronica.

“Come on in, Jack’s grilling,” said Annie. Logan passed a bottle of wine to Annie and she led the way up a path to a beautiful, Balinese style gazebo where Jack was priming the grill.

“Jack, thank you for the invitation. We appreciate it.” Said Logan.

“No problem, Will. You know Annie loves having you round, and now we get a two for one,” replied Jack. “Lovely to meet you again Veronica, although under more pleasant circumstances.”

“Thank you for the invitation, Mr Maxwell. You have a lovely garden,” replied Veronica feeling slightly awkward, as Jack and Annie Maxwell were also clients.

“Jack and Annie, please, and the garden is all Annie. My passion is in the workshop out back.”

“Jack, then. But I’ll stick to Mr and Mrs Maxwell at the office. Ms Main’s a stickler for protocol,” said Veronica. “But now I’m intrigued. What’s your passion, then.”

“Surfboards. He makes his own,” said Annie, coming up behind them. “You should get Will here to show you after lunch. He’s making one too.”

Veronica turned to face Logan, “I’d like to see that. You are full of surprises today,” thinking of his earlier proposal.

Annie looked at both of their faces and said, “why do I think there’s something more important than a surfboard behind that comment.”

Logan tightened his hand momentarily on Veronica’s waist before responding, “Annie, how many years have you been married to Jack? You know by now that there’s nothing more important than a surfboard.”

Jack laughed. “He’s got you there, honey.”

When they all sat down to lunch a little while later, the conversation flowed freely. Annie and Jack were agreeable, friendly hosts, but Veronica couldn’t quite shake the feeling that she was being interrogated. Discreetly and pleasantly, but interrogated nonetheless. She dismissed it thinking they were Logan’s friends. They were just looking out for him and her turning up was very sudden.

“Where did you grow up, Veronica?” asked Annie.

“Southern California. A smallish beachside town not far from San Diego.”

“How did you end up here in the Bay Area?”

“Stanford. A friend and I moved up to go to college. I’m still deciding on whether to go to law school or not so I stayed here and got job while I decide.”

“Interesting job you have, an investigator.” said Jack.

“Veronica’s dad was a PI,” answered Logan.

“Still is,” said Veronica. “Although he started out in law enforcement. Joined the police originally, then Sheriff’s deputy, then Sheriff.”

“How did he end up a private investigator, then?”

“He lost an election. He was good, but not always popular,” Veronica responded diplomatically, glossing over the tumultuous events of her teen years.

“Do you have a law school picked out? Where you thinking of going back to Stanford, or maybe Berkeley here in the Bay Area. Both good schools.”

“They are indeed,” said Veronica. “But I have a place at Columbia, in New York. I deferred it, because I want to be sure. Plus, I really like investigating.”

“What about law enforcement? Follow in your dad’s footsteps,” said Jack.

“Maybe. I spent two summers interning with the FBI. It was interesting, but I’m short and blonde. I think it would take twenty years in there before they stop asking me to take coffee orders.”

“Ah. They should know better than to underestimate smart women. But, I digress. Where did you and Will here meet?” asked Jack.

Veronica hesitated, running over their cover story in her mind, but Logan jumped in, looking at her intently for a moment, signalling her to follow his lead, before answering, “Veronica and I met in high school, in So-Cal, but we had a big falling out. She went away to college, I dropped out and went off the rails. It’s ok, Jack. She knows about the time I spent in rehab.”

“Yes, such a sad story, your parents both passing so young and leaving you alone. But we see what you’re making of yourself now and you should be proud,” said Annie.

“Thank you,” responded Logan, sincerely.

After lunch, Annie said “Jack, why don’t you and Will take Veronica out to see your surfboards. We manufacture wetsuits, and other surf gear, but those surfboards are his real love.”

Logan said, “I’ll just help Annie clear away and be out to join you in a minute,” nodding to the door.

Veronica turned to Jack as they walked outside to say, “you don’t manufacture them for sale? “

“No. I wanted to make sustainable wood ones. But they’re a very niche market item and most surfboards sold are mass market. To make them for sale would be cost prohibitive for our business so I just play about for myself, a few friends. I made one for my godson a few years back, for his high school graduation, but never got to give it to him.”

“That’s so sad, what happened?” Veronica asked.

“He left. Took off and left his family not long after he turned eighteen. He didn’t even finish high school. No one has seen him in about six years.”

A warning bell started to ring in Veronica’s ear, and turned into a klaxon at Jack’s next question.

“The town you grew up in, is that anywhere near Neptune?”

She stopped short, turned and addressed Jack square in the face. “You know,” she stated quietly.

Jack feigned innocence, badly. “Sorry, I don’t understand.”

Louder this time, Veronica repeated slowly and carefully, “you,” pause, “know.”

Logan approached them, walking up the path towards the workshop, hurrying when he saw her now combative stance and caught her last words.

“What’s wrong, Veronica.”

“He knows.”

“What, that doesn’t make sense,” said Logan

“He knows,” she stated bluntly, turning to him. “He just asked me if the town I grew up in was near Neptune.”

“Coincidence?” replied Logan, but sounding unsure.

“He told me about the board he made for his godson. A graduation gift he never got to give, because his godson left his family before his graduation. Six years ago, Lo..Will,” she corrected herself. “You remember Duncan used to go on and on about the boards his godfather made. How much he wanted one. He knows Jake Kane. He’s Duncan’s godfather!” She spun around to face Jack, demanding, “who else knows, who have you told, have you spoken to Jake Kane?” in quick succession.

Turning back to Logan, she spoke quickly, “this could be really bad. We need to go, we need to get you somewhere safe.”

Logan and Jack turned to her simultaneously saying “What?”

Then jumping in, Jack spoke quickly, “Wait. No one else knows. Just Annie and I. We worked it out this morning but we haven’t spoken to anyone about it. There hasn’t been enough time. But what do you mean about getting Will here somewhere safe? Is he in danger?”

“You’re telling the truth? No one else knows?” asked Veronica.

“I swear, we haven’t told anyone, but if Will’s in danger, we’d like to help. He’s a bit like a son to us now.”

Logan looked at him, astounded.

“Come back inside. Talk to Annie and I and we will help if we can. Even if it’s just by keeping our traps shut,” said Jack.

“Do you trust them?” Veronica asked Logan.

“Yeah, I do. Jack and Annie have seen me through some tough spots,” he replied.

Veronica assessed for a moment and said, “okay, then. Let’s go inside and find out what they know,” and Logan and Jack followed them inside.

Annie was surprised to see them so quickly, saying “bored with it already? Usually you’re a better storyteller,” but she trailed off when she saw Jack’s face. “You let it slip, Jack Maxwell? You never were a good liar.”

“You say you like that in me, Annie. And yes, I let it slip. She’s a smart one,” replied Jack. “But there’s more to it, and Will here could be in danger.”

“What, why? I’m missing something here,” Annie said, now confused. “What’s going on?”

That sat back down around the table and Veronica asked, “how did you work it out?”

Jack spoke first, “This morning, after surfing with Will here. He couldn’t stop talking about you. You were ‘the one that got away’, but he’d got you back and this time he wasn’t going to stuff it up. I invited you both for lunch, but when we talked later Annie and I were worried. You both seemed to be moving very fast, and to be honest, your name rang a bell but I couldn’t place it at first.”

“So I googled you,” said Annie. “It was buried a bit, but I’m persistent and we found your name associated with Lilly. News articles about how you discovered Lilly’s murderer. And then about how you had lied at the trial, and he was not guilty.”

“She didn’t lie,” Logan said reflexively. “He killed Lilly. Aaron Echolls had sex with her, killed her, and he nearly killed Veronica and her father.” The raw emotion in Logan’s voice was evident.

“Yes. We believe you,” said Annie. That stopped Logan in his tracks. “Not everyone believes a movie stars publicity, and we’ve seen the scars on your back.” She looked at Veronica, “we have a yearbook from Lilly’s last year at Neptune. The one with the tribute in it. I looked you up. You weren’t in Lilly’s year, but we found you in the year below. Duncan’s year.”

Jack took up the story, “then I remembered you.” He picked up a photo lying face down on the sideboard and turned it over. It was a copy of the homecoming picture with Duncan, Veronica, Lilly and Logan. “Duncan sent it to me after that dance.” He turned it over and it read, ‘Duncan & Veronica, Lilly & Logan’. “I would never have picked you out from that photo before, son, but now, you’ve grown up but you haven’t changed that much. You’re Logan.”

Logan flinched. “Yeah, I’m Logan Echolls. Aaron Echolls’ son. I was Lilly’s boyfriend and her murderer’s son.”

“You didn’t kill her, Will,” stated Annie. “You’re not your father and you are not responsible for his actions.”

“But I destroyed the tapes, the evidence that would have convicted him,” said Logan.

“You can’t know that, Logan. The way that trial went, he still probably wouldn’t have been convicted. All the tapes showed was that he had slept with her, not that he killed her,” said Veronica. “You could just as easily blame me. My headstrong behaviour gave them ways to discredit both me and my dad.”

“You weren’t at fault, Veronica.”

“Neither were you.”

“Stop it, the two of you,” said Jack sharply. “Lots of things and lots of people contributed to that not guilty verdict. And the two of you were children when Lilly was killed. You were the least responsible of all.”

That silenced them. Then Logan ventured, “that made you sound like my therapist in Switzerland. All you need is an accent.”

“You’re right, and we need to get back to our current problem,” said Veronica. “If you’re Duncan’s godfather, you must have known Jake way back.”

“Or Celeste,” said Logan and Veronica grimaced.

“Jake. He and I went to college together. Hearst at first, and then Stanford. The early years of Silicon Valley and we were both studying computer science. Jake always had the mind of a businessman but I only ever wanted to surf. He went on to create Kane Software. I came down here to Monterey to surf and started making boards, wetsuits, wax, anything I could to make ends meet at first. I got good at wetsuits and started making them to order, was making a decent living, but it wasn’t till I met Annie here that she kicked my butt into shape and we developed a proper business.” “Lilly and Duncan came along pretty quick after Jake got married. Lilly’s godparents are some family friends of Celeste, but Jake was insistent on me being Duncan’s godfather.”

“I don’t think Celeste forgave him for that until the business had become successful,” said Annie. “How was a wetsuit making surf bum in Monterey going to help him become president, after all. Especially after you married me. A half-Polynesian nobody from Hawaii. I think she was just grateful that you hadn’t met me before Duncan was born and at least his godmother is from a ‘proper’ family.”

“You’re not Celeste fans?” Asked Veronica.

“No, there’s a mutual dislike,” said Annie. “She’s very rigid, very black and white. She had very fixed expectations for her children, especially Lilly, and they had to be perfect all the time. Lilly needed gentle guidance, not a rigid hand and her rebellion had tragic consequences. Duncan was more easygoing, more acquiescent but more manipulative. He already knew by age ten that if he played the part she wanted in public, she didn’t care much of the rest.”

Veronica nodded, and then a thought struck her and she said to Jack, “If you went to school with Jake, do you know about ‘The Castle’.”

Jack went very still. “What do you know of the Castle?” he asked carefully.

“You’re a member,” she realised aloud.

“Was,” he said. “Not anymore. How do you know of the Castle? I can’t imagine any of the members telling you.”

“What is the Castle, Jack? And if you were a member, why is this the first I’m hearing about it?” asked Annie.

“It’s a secret society at Hearst,” said Veronica. “They select freshmen of talent, wealth or that they consider may be of use to them. Membership all but guarantees success. I had a run-in, shall we say, with their recruiting senior during our freshman year at Hearst.” Veronica told Jack and Annie an abridged version of what had happened with the sex tape, Gory, Jake Kane and the Castle hard drive, leaving out Mac and Wallace’s involvement.

“I was tapped at the same time as Jake,” said Jack. “I’m not sure why. I guess they thought that like Jake, I was going to be a computer software powerhouse or something. When I headed down here, Jake said they could set me up, make me successful. I wasn’t much into that at the time. To be honest they gave me the creeps, so I told Jake no, and if he could ‘lose’ my membership, that would be better. I haven’t heard from them since and I had kind of forgotten. College was a long time ago.” He looked pleadingly at Annie as he said this, willing her to understand.

Her responding look spoke of words to be had later, in private, but she addressed Logan and Veronica. “So this ‘Castle’ have got themselves involved with Russian Mafia. How does this affect Will here. I’m sorry, I can’t think of you as Logan”

“I beat up Gory for making and distributing the tape of Veronica,” said Logan. “He said I would die and has since been responsible for two attempts on my life. It was after the last time that I disappeared and became Will.”

“And you think that Jake would let these Russians know that Logan here has resurfaced, if I spoke to him,” asked Jack.

“I don’t know, Jack,” said Veronica . “I hope not, but I’m not willing to risk Logan’s life on Jake’s goodwill. Jake has no reason to like me, but he knows if anything untoward happens to me, the full hard drive of the Castle members confessions will be made public.”

“I think he keeps track of you,” said Jack.

“What?” said Veronica as she and Logan both swivelled to look him squarely in the face.

“I think he keeps track of you. He was the one who recommended your law firm to me. That seems like a mighty coincidence to me.”

“Especially since he doesn’t use us,” Veronica responded, thoughtfully.

“Yeah. Look, Annie and I won’t say anything about Will, ah, Logan to Jake or to anyone else,” said Jack. “If there’s anything we can can do to help, just ask.”

Annie added, “it’s easier for us to keep thinking and speaking of him as Will, so we’ll do that. But tell me, you were Duncan’s girlfriend,” indicating Veronica, “and Will was his friend,” indicating Logan. Veronica started, thinking that they were going to be asked how they had ended up together, but was surprised by Annie’s next question. “Do you ever hear from Duncan?”

“No,” they both said together, and looked at each other, surprised.

“We did, once, about a year after he left around our fifteenth wedding anniversary,” said Jack. “Well a postcard anyway. It was a picture of a surf break near Byron Bay in Australia but the postmark was Dubai and he had written ‘Thinking of you, love Dunc and Lils.’. We were wondering if he was quite alright because Lilly had been dead for three years by then.”

Veronica replied, “Lilly is his daughter. The one he ran away with. The news reports called her Faith as that was what Meg’s parents named her, but Duncan renamed her Lilly.”

“Well that’s good then.” said Annie.

Veronica was silent in the car as she and Logan drove back to San Francisco late that afternoon. Logan said, “you’re very quiet, tell me what’s going through your brain.”

“Lots to think about. I can’t quite get a grip on it all so I’m trying to sort the pieces all out. Some I can’t fathom.”

“Like?”

“I can understand why Jake Kane might be keeping track of me. I do hold the keys to his kingdom so to speak. But why would he then recommend us to his friend?” she mused.

“I don’t know,” said Logan. They sat in silence for a little longer. “Do you ever think about him?”

Uh oh, thought Veronica, landmine. “You mean Duncan? Occasionally. Mainly just to wonder how he and Lilly are doing.”

“I do too. He really never contacted you after he left?”

“No. I told him he couldn’t but I was a bit surprised he didn’t. But it was best that way. Clean break and all.”

“I hoped for a long time he’d send me something, anything. He was my best friend and he just left without saying goodbye. Nothing at all.” 

“That was part of the plan. At the time, you had enough legal problems that I didn’t want him to make it worse for you. But I was surprised we never heard anything, ever.”

“If he hadn’t run, do you think you would still be with him? That you would ever have got back with me?” he asked.

The first part she could answer easily. “I wouldn’t be with him. Even if he hadn’t gone, I would have broken up with him. He really did cheat on me with Kendall, you know. That wasn’t just for show. But I let him lie to me, tell me it was just him setting up the breakup. I didn’t care, and I knew it was over. But you and I,” she said, waving her hand between them, “I think we always kept gravitating back to each other. Duncan could actually cheat on me with someone I hated and I barely cared. It was like a sting, an insult. But when you slept with someone I hated, even though we were broken up, you broke my heart. That’s the difference between my feelings for him compared to my feelings for you. And even if he was standing right here in front of me, offering me the world, I would choose you. I want you.” I’m falling in love with you again, she thought.


	16. Sixteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan and Veronica return from Monterey and Veronica starts investigating her work colleagues to find the link to Jake Kane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter update was posted but didn't show up in the new updates on the archive. So if this isn't making sense, maybe head for chapter 15.

“Aaaargh, where are they,” said Veronica, stressed, wearing a towel and rummaging through her top drawer.

“Can I help?” asked Logan, strolling out of her bathroom, freshly shaven, wearing boxers. He came up behind her and dropped a kiss on her shoulder and played with the top edge of her towel.

Veronica swatted his hand away playfully saying, “not unless you can magically conjure up a pile of clean underwear for me. This is all your fault, you know. You came along and bamboozled me with sex and,” she paused to think of something else, “more sex. I forgot to do any washing and now I’m paying for it.” Veronica continued rummaging until she cried out, “got it” and waved a little pair of light blue bikini underwear. Scrounging around and finding the matching bra, she pulled dropped the towel and pulled them on. The walk across to her closet for work clothes turned into a strut when she realised Logan was watching her as he dressed, and she put an extra little swing in her hips for his very appreciative gaze.

“Minx. Keep doing that and we’ll be late,” he warned. She laughed and nipped into her closet, only to emerge a few minutes later fully dressed, carrying tights and shoes. “Spoilsport,” he muttered before heading out to make coffee while she finished dressing.

Veronica mentally replayed the previous night as she applied makeup, trying her best to tone down the appearance of kiss swollen lips. After her declaration in the car, Logan had gone very quiet, but his hand had reached over to squeeze her hand, and once he had parked the car he had pulled her into his arms, kissing her until they were both breathless.

When they had got back to the apartment, Logan had shut the door behind them, spun her around and pushed her up against the wall, kissing her hard, tongue demanding entrance into her mouth. His hands were everywhere, roaming over her body, until they had slipped under her skirt and were on her ass as he had picked her up so her legs wrapped around his waist. Veronica had pulled her mouth from his, murmuring, “bedroom,” before kissing him again, as desperate for him as he was for her.

Logan held her tight as he carried her to her bedroom closing the door behind them before carrying her over to sit her on the edge of her dressing table. Pushing up her skirt, the urgency of his need to be close to her had been overwhelming as he gripped her panties, pulling them down to her ankles where she kicked them off. She had fumbled with his fly until he brushed away her hands to do it quicker himself, shoving his jeans and boxers down just below his ass to free himself before kissing her again and moving between her spread thighs.

She had slid her fingers into the wetness between her thighs before taking him in hand and guiding him into her. His mouth was on hers again and he had thrust into her urgently as his tongue mirrored the action in her mouth. Her arousal had ratcheted up and up as she squirmed and tried to get just that little bit more pressure in just the right spot. Logan had slipped his hand between them and at that first touch of his fingers on her clit her orgasm had exploded, pulling him with her on his next thrust.

Dripping in sweat and spent, Logan had rested his forehead on hers for a moment before in sudden realisation he pulled back to look at her saying, “I forgot the condom.” He had followed up quickly, saying, “I’m clean. I got tested last month, routine physical and I haven’t, you know, since then but do we need to do anything else, I mean, pregnancy wise.” 

“So am I, clean that is. I had a test after my last relationship ended. Um, I also have an IUD,” she had responded. 

They had then looked at each other, shell shocked, her skirt hiked up around her waist, his pants at his thighs and her panties having been the only thing either of them had managed to take off. It had been intense, but she had meant everything she had told him and later, in the depth of night with her back tucked against his chest and her head pillowed on his bicep, he had told her how much it had meant to him, that she would choose him. And he had made love to her again, slowly and thoroughly.

Veronica shook herself out of her reverie, thinking she really would be late if she kept this up, and headed for the kitchen and the lifesaving power of coffee.

“I was wondering when you would appear,” said Logan, pouring her a cup and offering her a slice of toast. “There was a note from Mac. She is at Alex’s place.”

Willing herself not to flush, she accepted the cup saying, “hey, it takes time to look this good.”

To which he had quickly replied, “fishing for compliments? You look, as always, gorgeous.”

Aware that arriving together to her work would not exactly be the best advertisement for her professionalism, they had agreed that Logan would drop her off at the office before coming in himself for an appointment a little later. Veronica also wanted to speak with Andrea about the Castle and Jake Kane. It was a little risky, but her reasoning that Andrea couldn’t be a member was sound, with her being both a woman and a Berkeley graduate.

She approached Andrea’s office with a little trepidation, but Andrea waved her in, saying, “I see Mr Lester is returning for an appointment later this morning. I trust you had whatever discussions you needed over the weekend.”

“Yes.” Veronica had previously found Andrea’s insistence on strict formality with respect to clients a little constraining but in this situation, it gave her the opportunity to separate Logan, her now boyfriend and lover, and Will Lester, client. “Andrea, on Friday you mentioned that you had vetted me thoroughly before I started work here.”

Andrea looked at her curiously, “Yes, we did. If you are concerned about the ‘tape’, you shouldn’t be. It had no bearing on your employment here. Although if you do decide to apply to law school you should be aware that it may affect your employability with some firms of a more, shall we say, conservative outlook.”

Great, thought Veronica, another reason to hate on Gory Sorokin and his gift that keeps on giving, but forcing herself to stay on track said, “Ah that wasn’t it, but thank you for the warning. I wanted to know if I was recommended to you by anyone, other than my referees.”

“I don’t recall anyone, but James was responsible for recruiting you,” she said referring to the head investigator. “Was there anyone specific you were wondering about?”

“This bit needs to stay confidential, just between the two of us.”

“Does it pertain to Mr Lester’s case?

“It could, yes. It could endanger him,” replied Veronica.

“Then I will consider it part of his attorney client privilege. Go ahead,” indicated Andrea.

“Do you have any dealings with Jake Kane?”

“Of Kane software, and Lilly Kane’s father?” said Andrea.

“That’s the one,” replied Veronica, remembering that Andrea had brought up Lilly on Friday.

“No. We’ve had our share of bigger clients, but he, or Kane Software are not one of them. I’ve never met him. Why,” asked Andrea.”

“He recommended this firm to Jack and Annie Maxwell. He is an old friend of Jack’s, and Jack recommended us to Logan.”

“I think we should refer to Mr Lester by his legal name in this office, but I am curious. Why would Jake Kane have ever heard of us?”

“When did the Maxwells first arrive as clients? Did they come in just because of the fraud issue, or were they already clients.”

“They were already clients. They used to use a small concern down in Monterey, but the owner retired and sold the firm and they were not enamoured of the new owners. They came on board a little over twelve months ago. Why?” asked Andrea.

“That’s a little after I joined. Jack, Mr Maxwell thought, when Mr Lester and I spoke with him this weekend, that Jake may be keeping track of me. I had a run in with him just prior to leaving Neptune and its possible he has been keeping track of me over the years. However, it still doesn’t make sense why he would recommend the firm to a friend.”

“No, and there is something you aren’t telling me. Even if Jake Kane is keeping track of you, I fail to see how that connects to Mr Lester’s legal issues.”

Jake has a connection to the person Mr Lester assaulted, to the person who twice tried to have him killed. I am concerned that information as to Mr Lester’s other identity and whereabouts could be passed onto this person if Jake Kane has a connection in this office.”

“Why do you think it wouldn’t be me?”

“You went to Berkeley, undergrad and law school and I don’t think they operated out of there, but mainly because you’re a woman.”

“I see. I’m guessing this connection is through one of those college all male secret societies, like Skull and Bones at Yale.”

“Yes, it is called The Castle and it was active at Hearst from at least the 1930's up till the present.”

“Well, if you need to ask more questions, I would suggest approaching Roberto. He did your background check and he brought me the information about the tape. He is clearly discreet because that information has never been spread around. And he never went to college.”

And although the thought of a work colleague knowing of that sex tape made Veronica’s skin crawl, she thanked Andrea and headed off to question Roberto.

Veronica caught up with Roberto Perez in the break room as he was getting coffee. “Hey, Bobby, how was your weekend?” 

“Pretty good. Kids sports on Saturday, caught up with my brother and his family yesterday. Good times. How about you? James said you knew the new client on Friday afternoon,” Roberto replied.

“Yeah, it’s a long story from a long time ago. Um, do you have a few minutes? In private?” Veronica asked.

“For you, sure, but if it’s about the client, I think James was going to be lead.”

“No, for this I need to ask you.”

“Okay,” and he led her to the small meeting room off their communal office and shut the door. “Shoot.”

“So Andrea told me that you did the background check on me before I started here,” started Veronica.

“Yeah, but,” he started.

“It’s not about the tape,” she said quickly. “I wanted to know if I was recommended by anyone, other than my referees I mean.”

He thought for a minute and answered “Not directly to me. But James did the recruiting and he said he had a recommendation. I think it was from an old FBI connection.”

Well, she thought. Maybe I made more of an impression during those internships than I realised. “Okay, thanks.”

“And Veronica, I can put your mind at rest about the tape. I didn’t watch it. I saw the first sixty seconds or so but I stopped it there. I asked a colleague from the army who works in cybercrimes now to review it. She,” he said very deliberately, “provided a report. It just says that she reviewed it. There was no signs of non-consensual behaviour. Facial recognition, although flawed, didn’t show up any common participants on other sites, meaning you’re not in any other accessible videos, and neither participant looks at the camera, which can mean that the filming may have been done without you knowing. That written report was given to Andrea and she sealed it in your HR file.”

So Piz hadn’t gone on to a career in porn, good to know, she thought, but said, “it was filmed and distributed without my consent.” It was the rote response she had developed for any reference to the tape. “So thank you.” 

“No need. Anything else?”

“No,” and she headed for the door.

“I’ll see you later, then” he said. “Oh by the way, the ex FBI agent friend of James who recommended you. I think his name was Clarence, Clarence Weir or something.”

Veronica turned around sharply, “Clarence Wiedman?”

“That’s it. You know him?”

“Yes,” she said, but thinking oh shit.

She texted Logan to meet her in the coffee shop downstairs before his appointment and headed out to meet him.

With no preamble she told him, “My boss James, the ex FBI agent, knows Clarence Wiedman. He recommended me for this job.”

“Wiedman? Said Logan. “He was Jake’s head of security, wasn’t he.”

“Yeah. And all rounder fixer. I cannot figure out why they would be recommending me for a job. Warning someone away, sure, but recommending me?” Veronica took a breath and continued, "but that can all wait. Right now what we need to concern ourselves with is if James knows who you are and if he has told Wiedman.”

“You know him better than I. What are the chances?”

“I think he knows who you are. If Andrea can work it out, I’m sure he can. I’m not sure if he would know enough of the significance to tell Wiedman straightaway,” she said.

“So what are our choices here. Do I run, leave Will Lester behind and start fresh,” said Logan, thinking that he really didn’t want to after finding her again.

“I think we can hold that as the nuclear option. I just can’t see reconcile James, with what I’ve seen and heard about him the last eighteen months, intentionally handing over information to a Russian crime syndicate,” said Veronica. “I think it’s worth talking to him. Maybe we can convince him not to say anything. At the very least I think he’ll let us know if he already has.”

“If you’re sure?” He asked sceptically.

“I’m not entirely, however there are things not adding up here, but not in a bad way,” she said. "Before today, I would have told you that I trusted James implicitly. I know after talking to Bobby, ah Roberto this morning that I trust him.”

“Okay,” he said, “because I trust you. Let’s go.”

Andrea met them as they entered the law firm’s main offices. “There’s been a development,” she said quietly. “Mr Lester, Veronica, it would be best if you would follow me,” and led the way into a large conference room. Logan ushered Veronica ahead of him, but pulled up short, almost bumping into her when she stopped abruptly and he looked up, his face mirroring hers in shock. There, standing next to James in front of them, stood Clarence Wiedman and Jake Kane.


	17. Seventeen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An unwelcome pair of visitors brings chaos to Veronica and Logan.

Jake spoke first. “Veronica, Logan, it is good to see you both.”

“Is it really Jake? I got the impression you would prefer I just disappear,” replied Veronica.

“I can understand how our last interaction would lead you to believe that. However, I have never wished you ill Veronica, said Jake. “You just made my life difficult at times.”

“I’m so sorry for making your life difficult,” Veronica replied, sarcasm thick in her voice. “It’s not as if you’ve never made mine.”

Jake looked a little surprised at her words, but went on, “We are working on a way to enable Duncan to return to the States. A deal is being brokered, but there are some sticking points we would like your help with. We contacted James and he advised us that you and Logan here would be in today. I was quite surprised to find out Logan was alive, as he was reported dead a number of years ago. I feel we may be able to assist Logan with his legal issues. And we hope you will willingly assist Duncan with his.”

Logan and Veronica glanced at each other. Jake's choice of wording had them both on edge. Logan spoke first, “I’m not sure I would require much assistance with my legal issues, Jake. I am dissatisfied with my current legal adviser and was looking to switch.” Logan opted to omit the potential fraud issues or mention of Gory Sorokin, opting to wait to see if Jake brought it up. “As for my ‘death’, well one could just say that Trina was a little premature. I was living in Europe and returned a year or so ago.”

“Ah,” said Jake, “My mistake.” But it was clear from his tone that he was sceptical. “Veronica, I would like a word, perhaps in private?”

Andrea broke in at this point, “Mr Kane, you mentioned that you are looking for assistance with your son returning. If I am not mistaken, your son kidnapped a child,”

“His daughter,” interrupted Jake.

“His daughter,” conceded Andrea, “but still a child he did not have legal custody of, and fled the country. And you are seeking Miss Mars’ assistance with this. At this point, I would advise that I am acting as Miss Mars’ legal counsel, in addition to Mr Echolls.”

Veronica looked gratefully at Andrea, understanding the pitfalls of the situation, and spoke to Jake, “I think we can all speak here. Perhaps you could enlighten me as to how I may want to willingly assist Duncan.”

“To speak plainly, Veronica, the FBI have indicated that in order to make this deal, those who aided in his flight would have to be also be required to face charges, but they would be amenable to similar arrangements, deals, which could be made with each of those involved.”

Veronica blanched and was about to speak when Andrea stepped in, “are you alleging Miss Mars was involved, Mr Kane. That is a very serious allegation.”

“I am aware of that. But Veronica did aid him to escape and in order for him to return, we would hope she would comply with the FBI’s expectations.”

“I think you are mistaken, Jake,” said Veronica, carefully. “As I advised the FBI at the time, I did help Duncan to sell the earrings as Duncan told me he wanted money for legal costs that neither you nor Celeste were willing to give him, despite him telling you that Meg’s parents abused their youngest daughter and that Meg had begged him not to let them have custody of their baby. I also told the police and the FBI everything they asked at the time,” said Veronica carefully sticking to her original series of events.

Logan then spoke up, “So Jake, are you saying that Duncan is implicating Veronica in aiding him, in order to return to the States.”

“At this time, Duncan is not divulging any names. He maintains he paid some man to drive him across the border. He hid in his truck, but never knew his name. But I know he is lying and the FBI knows he had assistance from her.” replied Jake. 

Andrea spoke up, “Mr Kane, Miss Mars assisted the FBI at the time of the incident. They did not charge her then. Your son is not implicating Miss Mars, but you want her to confess to a crime nobody has accused her of committing, impacting the rest of her life, in order to satisfy the FBI and allow him to return.”

“I am asking Veronica to come to the party, come clean so to speak. Own up to her part, take the deal and allow Duncan to come home, so that he can live his life.”

Logan exploded. “Exactly how many times is Veronica supposed to pay, to have her life destroyed by you, Jake.”

Jake rounded on Logan. “What do you mean. She did this, she aided him running away with the baby. Duncan doesn’t deserve to have his entire life thrown away because she won’t admit to her part.”

“You’re a fine one to talk about responsibility, Jake. When Lilly was killed, you were the one who lied, who covered up the truth. You thought Duncan had killed her and you lied to save him. But who bore the consequences of your lies? She did. It was her father you ran out of office. He lost his job, they lost their house and a whole lot of her future because of you. Maybe, if you hadn’t lied then, Aaron would have been caught without a seventeen year old girl and her father being terrorised and injured.”

“I was just trying to protect my son. What father wouldn’t do that?”

“I know Jake. But stop pretending that other people didn’t get hurt by what you did. Other lives were impacted and you never took responsibility just as you are not taking responsibility for your part in Duncan’s flight with the baby. Duncan got Meg pregnant, no one else. And remember I lived with him. I heard him pleading with you to help him fight Meg’s parents legally and you refused to help, even when he told you about the abuse. Your reputation and his future prospects were more important to you than keeping your grandchild away from child abusers. If you had helped him then, he wouldn’t have needed to run.”

“We weren’t aware it was serious. We thought he was exaggerating.”

“But you never thought to find out because even after the mess you made after Lilly was killed, you still always thought you were right. Maybe it was me who helped him. I was raised by a fucking child abuser. Maybe I helped Duncan because I didn’t want any child to go through that.”

“Logan, no,” said Veronica. “You can’t take this upon yourself.”

“Why not, Veronica?” he said, speaking to her but continuing to look straight at Jake. “Like him, I have enough money to buy myself out of this hole. My life won’t be measurably affected, you won’t have to be the scapegoat and he’ll get his precious son back. Of course, once it’s known I’m still alive, the FBI may have some issues keeping the murderous Russian mafia from succeeding in killing me off. Yet another situation you helped to create, Jake.”

A flicker of reaction crossed Jake’s face, so small it had been almost imperceptible before he went blank again, replying, “we stopped that. After the assault in the car park, he was instructed to leave you alone.”

“Funny how that didn’t stop him, Jake. In fact he got a whole lot closer to succeeding in France when they injected me full of heroin. Of course, that time he tried to make it look like an overdose,” said Logan.

“We were not aware of that. It should not have happened,” said Jake, defensively.

“But it did. You invited the son of a Russian mobster to join your secret society of power and wealth and expected him to play by the rules? Do you know why I hit him, Jake? Because he filmed her,” indicating Veronica, anger ripe in his voice, “without her knowledge and sent it around for everyone to see. To humiliate her, to make her life miserable and even now that tape will be affecting her life because you know stuff like that online never goes away. I destroyed the tapes Aaron made of Lilly because I couldn’t stand the thought of other people seeing her like that. Veronica never even got that chance.”

“I didn’t ask him to tape her, Logan,” said Jake.

“No, of course not. It’s never your responsibility. Except that you gave him the means and reason to film in the dorm rooms to recruit for your secret society. Except that his family and your society entrenched in him a sense of entitlement so great, that his wants and desires were paramount and people like Veronica were less than collateral damage, they were pawns for his ego. So I ask you again, how many times will you expect Veronica, who has had to fight for every meagre opportunity she has had, to give up her life for you and yours, whilst you still take no responsibility for anything you do.”

The room erupted as Andrea, James and Clarence attempted to speak simultaneously, but Veronica stared at Logan in amazement. No one had ever defended her, stood up for her so completely, so eloquently. No one else other than her father had wanted to protect her. This was the moment. She suddenly knew she wasn’t falling in love with him again. She was already there.

James’ deep baritone cut through the noise in the room. “Enough.” Silence ensued as he held up his hand and addressed Clarence. “What have you brought to my door, Clarence? I compromised my ethics and standards because I trusted you, and instead you have brought this man who consorts with Russian gangsters to us. Who expects us to help him. I have betrayed a good young woman and compromised myself at this firm for a man involved with the worst kind of criminal.” Turning to Veronica and Andrea he went on, “I apologise to you Veronica, I was misled but I should not have betrayed your confidence and Andrea, I can only apologise to you also and say you will have my resignation as soon as these matters are dealt with.

Andrea responded, “Oh we will be having words, James. I am not sure a resignation will cut it.”

Jake looked shocked. His carefully crafted argument designed to influence, guilt and bully Veronica into a confession had been shredded by Logan’s invective. His belief that as Veronica had aided in his son’s crime that it was only fair that she accept responsibility to enable Duncan’s return had been turned around onto him and damned if the boy didn’t have a point. If he had shown this much promise or maturity at Hearst, they would have recruited him. But irrespective of this, he needed Veronica, willing or not, to do what was needed to get Duncan home and he calculated he had two weapons left, bribery and blackmail. It was just a question of which would work best. “We will compensate you. Handsomely.”

Veronica looked at Jake in disgust. “Some things don’t change, do they Jake. Pay someone to confess to keep Duncan safe. Abel Koontz ring any bells.”

Andrea’s voice penetrated the argument, indicating to Veronica to be quiet. “I believe, Mr Kane, that you have put your piece for now. It’s an ugly situation. Why is Veronica in particular so necessary.”

Clarence Wiedman answered, “the FBI agent, Morris, wants her. She was embarrassed by being bested by teenagers. She won’t negotiate a non custodial sentence for Duncan unless she gets Veronica too.”

“I will do whatever it takes to get my son back. And Logan, so many of our friends will be happy to hear of your return,” said Jake.

The thinly veiled threat was evident to Veronica and everyone else in the room. Logan for Duncan.

“Mr Kane, blackmail is a crime,” said Andrea.

“What an unattractive word, Ms Main. I was just expressing how Logan has so many old friends who will be so happy to see him again. Dick Casablancas for example, he went to Hearst with you too.”

Andrea took a breath. Her law career, while many and varied, had dealt mainly with business law, corporations, estates and some white collar crimes. It had not prepared her to deal with an opponent who would sacrifice a life for his own ends, so right now all she could think of was that they needed time. “Mr Kane, I’m sure you can appreciate decisions of this magnitude cannot be made in haste. Miss Mars needs time to consider her options and the offers on the table. None of us would want to be hasty in our actions. I trust you understand this.”

“I do Ms Main. Veronica, Logan, I will need to hear from you by the end of the week,” and with that, Jake Kane walked out.

Clarence Wiedman went to follow Jake out when James stepped in front of him, laying a hand on his arm. “I don’t know how you stomach that,” said James.

Clarence shrugged him off and continued out, but James heard him mutter, “This time, I don’t think I can.”

After they had gone, Logan spoke first. “Well I just screwed the pooch. If I hadn’t mentioned the Russians, he wouldn’t have known to hold it over you.”

Veronica replied, “It wouldn’t have mattered. He knew Gory had come after you before and that he had that leverage. I just think he didn’t expect to have to use it. But I think he’s bluffing.”

“Why,” said Andrea.

James answered, “because Jake knows if he exposes him,” nodding at Logan, “Veronica will never give him what he wants. But I helped cause this. I need to fix it.”

Veronica said, “We need to work out our options, and we need a plan. I can take his deal. I don’t want to, but I can do it if need be. But I would like to find another solution. If you want to help, James, can you approach your current contacts at the FBI and see what you can find out about the Duncan Kane case, and Agent Morris. We need to find out if she can be circumvented or may be open to a different offer.”

James nodded, I can do that. I’ll also see if there is anything in the works with the Russians, if you give me the name.”

Logan responded, “Gorya Sorokin was his name. He was at Hearst in 2007 and I think he was a junior or a senior.”

“He has an Uncle Lev" added Veronica, remembering the confession, but not wanting to share the knowledge at this time.

Andrea said, “If they had evidence to charge you, Veronica, they would have already. Would Duncan Kane be able to change that?”

Veronica sighed, “If he is convinced to testify, if would just be he said/she said. But I’ve been painted as a scheming, manipulating liar in court once and they will have no problems bringing that up again. I have no idea which way this would go and if it gets to that point I would probably be better off with a deal.”

“Ah yes, another Aaron Echolls gift that keeps on giving,” said Logan with bitterness.

Andrea spoke again, “Veronica, this is well out of my realm and if there is no other solution, you’re going to need a criminal defense attorney, and a good one.” 

“If you can make some recommendations, we can look after that,” said Logan. 

Veronica looked at him angrily, “Logan, I won’t take your money.”

“Why not?”

“You know why,” she replied.

“No, I don’t. But if you won’t take let me pay, sue Aaron’s estate.” 

“For what?” she asked incredulously.

“Assault, reckless endangerment, wrongful imprisonment, physical and psychological damages, take your pick. He did shut you in a refrigerator and set it on fire,” Logan answered.

“Logan, he was acquitted of the charges at trial.” 

“And you know the legal requirement for a civil case is balance of probabilities not reasonable doubt and I promise, it’ll settle,” said Logan.

Seeing and impasse developing between the two of them and knowing it was unhelpful, Andrea cut in, "for now, Veronica, I will loan you the money for the retainer and the rest can be settled later. I’ll just get recommendations. I assume you would prefer discreet over flashy.”

“Yes. But not Ethan Lavoie. I couldn’t deal with that,” said Veronica.

“Why not Ethan Lavoie?” asked Andrea

“He was Aaron’s lawyer,” replied Logan.

‘I see,” said Andrea, and saying “James, my office, now,” walked out with him, leaving Veronica and Logan alone.

Veronica looked at her watch. It was barely 10am and her world had just been turned on its head. “We didn’t get to make much headway on your fraud case, did we?”

“Veronica, that is so irrelevant right now,” he said. “Everything about my case can wait. This can’t.”

“Did you mean what you said before?” she asked.

“Every word,” he said. “Which bit?”

“About why I should have to pay when they avoid responsibility.”

“Absolutely. Jake Kane has never considered the impact of his actions on anyone. No one holds him to account so he doesn’t even notice it, and he would never consider holding himself to account. Your dad made me think about what you had lost. But rehab made me hold myself accountable for my actions.”

“I did do it, Logan. I did help him leave. Maybe I should take the punishment, be accountable for my actions.”

“There’s a big difference, Veronica. You weren’t acting for your own benefit. You did it to save a little girl from a life of abuse. You may have broken the law of the land to do it, but it doesn’t make it wrong. Let’s wait and see what else can be done before trashing your future for the Kanes.”

Veronica conceded, “okay. But now I have to contact Mac and visit a safety deposit box."

Logan looked at her in askance.

“I stole Jake’s encrypted hard drive. It had a list of all the members of the Castle and their confessions. Members never tell because their own dirty secrets may be exposed. I took a copy and kept it in a safety deposit box.” 

“But why Mac?

“Who do you think de-encrypted it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dialogue with five voices. Hoping its not too confusing.
> 
> Good news is this is now longer than my masters thesis was :-O


	18. Eighteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veronica, Logan and Mac search for inspiration and answers, and a little bit more love.

“Hey Mac,” said Veronica, phoning from Logan’s car as they headed for a bank not far from her apartment. 

“Hey V, I’m guessing the boy still around?”

“Yeah, he is. How can you tell?”

“You sound, I don’t know, glowy. I know I told you that you needed to get laid, but only you could manage to pull off hooking up with your supposedly dead sex god ex boyfriend.”

“Um, Mac, the not-so-ex boyfriend is sitting next to me and you are on speaker phone.”

“Ah, hi Logan,” Mac said slightly sheepishly. “How was Monterey”

“Hi Mac,” said Logan smiling. “Monterey was great. You should come down one weekend.”

“That would be great. And V, tell me about the speaker phone before I put my foot in my mouth next time.”

“Will do and moving on. Listen, some things have come up this morning and we need to catch up real soon,” said Veronica.

“I’ll be home tonight,” said Mac.

“We’ll be heading your way in about an hour. Can we catch you then? It’s important.”

Thinking that Veronica never asked to catch up during the work week, Mac mentally rearranged her work load for the day and cleared some time. “I can be free around eleven thirty. That okay?”

“Perfect. See you soon,” replied Veronica, and ended the call.

“Sex god?” said Logan.

“I’m going to kill her,” muttered Veronica and spotting an excellent subject change cried out, “Look, there’s a parking spot.”

Veronica and Logan retrieved the hard drive from Veronica’s safety deposit box and stopping to grab coffee and sandwiches for them all, headed for Mac’s office.

They settled into Mac’s office and with the door firmly shut, Veronica and Logan told Mac of the visit from Jake Kane, about Duncan looking to return and about Jake’s ultimatum. Mac looked disgusted when it came to the part where Jake had threatened to expose Logan to Gory Sorokin in order to enforce Veronica’s acquiescence.

“He’s an idiot,” she exclaimed, “an overindulged, card carrying idiot. He is so used to demanding and taking that he completely overlooked the one easy thing he could have done to get your co-operation. Veronica looked confused but Logan started nodding his head and Mac could see he had put the pieces together. Nodding from him to Veronica, she said “You know, don’t you. What would you have done?”

Logan turned to Veronica and said, deadpan, “I need your help, Veronica.”

Veronica looked at them both and rolled her eyes before saying, “Shit. You’re right too. If he had just asked instead of bullied and threatened, it probably would have worked. But he didn’t and now I’m all pissed off. Stupid stupid man. Mac, I wanted to go through the names on the membership role on the disk, to see if there are any which might be able to give us some leverage over Jake.”

Mac nodded before saying, “Gory’s confession was more damning for his father and uncle, than for him although I personally don’t mind if the FBI takes down the whole damn family.”

Logan looked at them both in confusion until Veronica said, “His confessional was his father and uncle dismembering bodies in the workshop under a wood cabin. Jake’s was of a steamy boarding school incident, but it’s a fake.

“It would have to be.” said Logan. “Jake didn’t go to boarding school. I remember him talking about high school with Duncan and I when we were maybe thirteen? Can’t remember where he went, but it wasn’t a boarding school. I think Celeste wanted to send Duncan away to boarding school, but Duncan’s epilepsy would have made that difficult.”

“He went to Neptune High, just like us.” said Veronica, remembering that Jake and her mother had been king and queen of the prom. “Jake’s confession is a lie. I wonder how many of the others are as well and can we use that? Maybe you could ask Jack if his confession was real or invented?”

Mac said, “I guess you want me to de-encrypt the disk.”

“Yep. Make a copy and encrypt it again. This is insurance.”

“Easy. Tech has improved enough that I can fit this all on a thumb drive. We’ve got some secure ones that are pass coded. This will take about a half to an hour. The conference room next door is free, go do something else and don’t bother me.”

Logan stage whispered to Veronica, “So by ‘go do something else’, did she mean prove my sex god status.”

Both women answered simultaneously, “No!” and Logan smirked as he led Veronica next door.

In the conference room, Veronica said “There’s not much we can progress until we get the name list from Mac, but we can chase up Stanford about the scholarship. I know the person who administered my scholarship from the scholarships office, so I could call and ask about the invoices. I’ll get her to send them to your email address. That will look more legitimate.” Taking out her phone, she made a call. 

“Hi Julie, its Veronica Mars here.” Pausing to listen to the other person on the phone, she went on, “Yes, it’s been over a year. Hey listen, I am doing some work for the Castaway Foundation and we seem to have deleted or misfiled some invoices from your office. We need them for some audits and I was wondering if you could email me a copy, make my life easier.” She listened again and then spoke, “Yes, the invoices for the last years for my scholarship and the ones for Robert Carson as well. Hold on, I’ll just give you an email address,” and held out her hand to Logan who offered her his business card and she read out, “W dot Lester at Castaway f n dot org. Thanks Julie.”

After she had hung up, she said, “Thanks. Your Castaway email made it sound legitimate, but it looks like there was a second scholarship paid by Castaway for a Robert Carson. Ring any bells?”

“Not really. I don’t remember the name from the list of recipients Mac and I put together on Saturday. What about you? You were at Stanford at the same time as he was” replied Logan.

Veronica thought back but replied, “Nothing. But if he wasn’t in my classes, I probably wouldn’t have come across him. I wasn’t exactly the party type.”

“That’s an understatement,” said Mac, coming through the door. “Here’s your original disk and the copy thumb drive. I’ve sent the code through to your phone.”

“Do you remember a Robert Carson at Stanford?” Veronica asked Mac.

“I vaguely recall someone by that name. Mike might remember,” she said, referring to one of her business partners and her boyfriend’s roommate. “Why?”

“That’s who my foundation paid a scholarship to Stanford for,” replied Logan. “He wasn’t on the list of names we had on Saturday.”

“No, but at least with a name, you can start finding out who he is. I am printing out the list of Castle members in my office. There are some interesting names on there too. Come back in and I’ll show you.”

In Mac’s office, she grabbed some papers from a printer in the corner and handed them over. Logan and Veronica looked over the list. There were plenty of familiar names of businessmen, prominent actors, sports people and politicians. Veronica looked at the list at Jake Kane’s year but didn’t see Jack Maxwell’s name. “Looks like Jake managed to make Jack’s membership disappear,” she said.

Mac chimed in, “There is a Robert Carson at the bottom of the list. Part of the last year intake on our copy, our freshman year. But there is a Philip Carson in 1980 and other Carsons at intervals of around 25 years. All with an S at the end. What’s the S or the H on each name for.”

“Nish told me back then that it was established at Stanford and at Hearst, so I guess S is Stanford,” said Veronica absentmindedly.

Logan wasn’t listening. He had zeroed in a name on the paper and looked up at her, “Andrew Mathis. My lawyer is on this list.”

“What?” said Veronica.

“My lawyer.”

That triggered something for Mac, “Veronica, remember when we were looking up Logan on Friday and I said Trina had tried to have him declared dead. The name of the judge who knocked it back was Judge Philip Carson.”

“They knew,” said Veronica. “They’ve known all along. The Castle knew you weren’t dead and have been keeping it covered up. Your lawyer has his Castle buddy make sure you aren’t declared dead. Do you think Robert Carson is Philip’s son?”

“No idea, but if the Castle knew, why hasn’t Gory come after me again?” said Logan.

Veronica thought and answered, “Remember Jake this morning. He knew you weren’t dead. I thought it was because James and Clarence had told him, but I think he knew already. He also said that they had told Gory to stop after the assault at the Grand and that he wasn’t aware of the attack in Cannes. Maybe this was another way of protecting you from Gory. Encourage you to change your name and keep a low profile.” 

Logan replied, “It fits, but why? And why is a member of the Castle getting a scholarship from my foundation.”

“I think that is what we have to find out, but at least it is probably safe to say your lawyer isn’t going to reveal your identity,” said Veronica. “He’s got too much to lose.”

Veronica’s phone pinged and she checked her phone. “James has asked us to come back in to the office. He has some information and doesn’t want to go into it over the phone.” She calculated and texted back that they would be there in about forty five minutes. “Let’s get this disk drive back to the bank and head in.”

“Thanks Mac,” said Logan. “For everything.”

“That’s okay, Logan, see you tonight,” said Mac as Veronica and Logan headed out.

Back in the law firm offices, James ushered the two of them into the small conference room where Logan and Veronica had spoken on Friday night. “I spoke with a friend in the FBI. The Duncan Kane case seems to be primarily driven by the lead agent. The Manning’s were convicted last year of the abuse of their youngest child, Grace on evidence collected by their other daughter Elizabeth and Elizabeth now has guardianship of Grace. In these circumstances the courts would be looking to place Duncan’s child with Duncan’s parents, with Elizabeth or even with Duncan if he has been found to be acceptable parent and hasn’t been incarcerated. It makes sense that the courts would look to cut a deal where the Duncan remains free and the child remains with the only parent she has known either in his custody or technically in his parent’s custody, especially where the family is as well situated as the Kanes. For Veronica, it means that to avoid Veronica facing a charge, we would need to circumvent Morris, or offer her an incentive, not financial, but something like a better collar. Or Veronica could take the deal. I’ve asked him to see if he can find out what kind of terms any deal would have. So long as no one contradicts them, it would be easy to paint you as the naïve eighteen year old making a big sacrifice to save her friend’s child from abusive grandparents.”

“But if a conviction is recorded, even with no time served, I assume that means the end of any chance of a law career,” said Logan.

“Not entirely,” responded Veronica. “I can still become a lawyer, but getting a job at the end might prove problematic. It would also be a problem for my PI license. That’s assuming it would be a felony conviction but it might be okay if it could be pleaded down to a misdemeanour.”

“It still doesn’t seem right. You paying a price for the Kane’s inaction,” said Logan.

James broke in again, “Clarence also contacted me. He was very disappointed this morning.”

“Disappointed that Veronica didn’t roll over and do their bidding,” scoffed Logan.

“No, he was disappointed with Jake and how he handled things. He was very angry that Jake would threaten your safety, that it was counter-productive. He also said that they have been working to isolate Sorokin from the rest of Castle, but it has been more problematic than they expected.”

“I wonder what possessed them to invite a gangster’s son to join,” said Logan. “I always thought these societies were about the rich making each other richer. I would have thought they would be avoiding anything resembling organised crime.”

“I asked Clarence the same question. Apparently Sorokin was put forward by a member as who described him as the son of a Russian oil oligarch. It was only after he became a member that the discovered what they had invited,” said James.

“I don’t get it, James,” said Veronica. “How could they make that mistake? They check and verify. When my friend Wallace was being considered, they followed him, filmed him. They knew what they were asking when they got his confession.” Veronica was not ready to admit to James that she had a copy of the confessions.

“The senior in charge of rushes in Sorokin’s year had enormous gambling debts. Apparently Hearst had a bunch of students running little casinos and he just kept borrowing money,” said James. Veronica and Logan nodded, each of them remembering Mercer and his casino. “Sorokin offered him an opportunity to wipe his debt. The kid probably never even knew what he was doing until the confessional. He was found dead a year later. He had OD’d.”

Logan looked up in shock. “You think Gory had him killed? Like they attempted on me?”

James replied, “Clarence thought it was possible. No proof but a definite possibility. Clarence also said that they taped a confession from each initiate, but the rushing senior who filmed was the often only person who saw it. Jake kept the master hard drive, but didn’t really watch them. It was only after you,” and he paused, selecting his words carefully, “had your run in with Gory, that Jake had a look at his rush confession. It was disturbing, apparently, and Jake has been trying to minimise Gory’s influence since then. Unfortunately Gory had had access to the hard drive and Jake believes he copied it and has everyone’s secrets.”

Veronica thought of the little thumb drive hanging on her key chain. Instead, she asked, “Are these societies legal? Why don’t they get shut down?

Logan answered her, “mostly it’s just about doing favours for one another. You help me, I’ll help you. Recommendations for plum jobs, access to investment opportunities, but generally not illegal. Aaron always wanted to me to get invited into one.”

So you worked hard at avoiding it, thought Veronica.

“The main crime these societies ever get caught on is insider trading,” said James.

“It sounds like the Castle would like to get rid of Gory, but can’t because they fear what secrets he knows, said Logan.

“Yes. They won’t provide evidence to the FBI if they have any, in fear of exposure,” replied James.

“So Jake wouldn’t be willing to trade Gory as the bigger fish,” said Veronica.

“I doubt it,” replied James.

“Maybe we can get evidence to the Feds without blowback to Jake,” said Logan.

“But we’d have to get it from Jake in the first place, and if Jake was willing to hand it over anonymously he probably would have,” said James.

“Clarence?” asked Veronica, glancing at Logan to make sure he didn’t mention the copy of the disk currently in her possession.

“As much as Jake trusts him, I don’t think he has access himself.”

“This is becoming an impasse,” said Veronica. “Jake doesn’t want to give up Gory because it would betray his brotherhood. I don’t want to give up my opportunity for law school or my PI license and Logan is being used as a bargaining chip in the middle.”

“And then there is Duncan and Lilly,” said Logan.

Veronica suddenly had an idea, “James, I am going to chase up someone who had information on the Castle membership at Hearst. Could you keep pursuing what kind of deal they may be willing to make.”

That night, Logan, Veronica and Mac were sitting around after dinner when Logan said, “Why didn’t you want to tell James that you have the confession data and the membership list?”

“I wasn’t ready to give it to him. Once I say I have it, he will expect me to hand it over to the Feds,” she said, “no matter who it impacts. It would be black and white to him. That’s one of the reasons he is so angry about this morning.”

“So did you give anyone at Hearst the membership list?” asked Mac

Veronica answered, “Yeah, I gave it to Nish. Remember the activist at Lilith House. They wanted to sue for admission, but I never heard that it actually happened.”

“You’re trying to find a way to get that disk into the FBI’s hands without it being traced to you,” said Logan.

“Yeah. I don’t want it to blow back on me or Mac. I’m not fussed about Jake Kane but if it hurts Duncan and little Lilly I don’t want that either,” said Veronica. “I just have to figure out how.”

Mac yawned, and said, “thank you for that. I have no desire for any of this of these Russians to come knocking on my door, but for now I’m off to bed.”

Veronica stood up and taking Logan by the hand, led him to her bedroom. As the door shut behind them, Logan bent his head and kissed her, starting out gentle, tasting but rapidly escalating until his mouth was plundering, desperate to taste every part of her. His mouth left hers and started dropping little kisses along her jawline before dropping lower to the spot on her neck he had discovered when they were both seventeen that made her gasp. Stripping off her clothes before carrying her to bed, the first time he made love to her was a masterclass of all the things he remembered about her. The kisses down her neck, the alternating gentle caresses and little pinches on her nipples that had them puckering to peaks of desire, the tiny little staccato tapping with one long finger on the hood of her clit all designed to ratchet up her desire until she was finely balanced on the edge, quivering under his touch, before pulling back, letting her arousal recede just a little.

“Logan, please,” she begged breathily, groaning in desperation.

He continued to caress her, taking her up to the edge with his hands and his mouth again and again before kissing his way back up her body and whispering in her ear, “over on to your knees.” She nodded and he helped her to come up on to her hands and knees and he positioned himself behind her. Entering her, slowly, inch by inch, he pushed in until he was flush with her ass, before starting to thrust. As he picked up speed, she was panting with desire as he pumped in and out at just the right angle, hitting the exactly right spot until as he could feel her tightening when he slipped a hand around to stroke across her clit and fling her into an explosive orgasm.

The second time he made love to her, he woke her from sleep with his head between her thighs, licking, sucking and tasting her at leisure, gradually building her arousal until she was moaning, feet planted into the mattress, hands gripping the sheet underneath her as her hips ground upwards towards his mouth until with one perfectly timed swipe across her clit she came. He crawled up over her body as he had the that first morning only a few days earlier, and entered her feeling how hot and wet she was, how eagerly receptive. He started slowly thrusting gently, almost reverently until she urged him on, wrapping her legs around his waist and they sped up together, perfectly in sync until she tightened beneath him and he thrust again letting himself go. 

They lay together afterwards after their breathing had steadied and their heart rates slowed and she said, “what’s going on in your head. That seemed desperate, almost as if you were trying to imprint yourself on me.”

He replied “I don’t quite know,” but he did. His old insecurities where Duncan was concerned had reared their ugly head, but he realised he didn’t want to lie to her, didn’t want this between them. “No, that’s not true. I just feel unsure, even though only yesterday you said you would choose me, that Duncan won’t come back and take you away.”

“Oh, Logan. I do love Duncan,” and his heart stopped for a moment until she continued, “but I love him like my old friend, my best friend’s brother.” She paused for a moment before continuing, “Can I tell you something without overblowing your ego?”

He whispered “yes,” in the dark.

“I dreamt of you, those five years apart. Not every night, but a lot. At first the dreams were frightening, nightmares really as I tried to save you but couldn’t.” He closed his eyes and wished that away while she continued, “but after I got some help, the dreams changed. I dreamt of the innocent time of our friendship before Lilly died. I dreamt of the summer before college when we were so happy, so in love, and I dreamt of you, on nights like this where we were together. Duncan may have been my first boyfriend but you were my first love. You still are.”

Logan’s arms tightened around her. “You know I loved Lilly. But she was like a sparkler, those little fizzy fireworks you wave around. Bright and intense at first, but spitting light and sparks out everywhere until they just eventually fizzle out and you hope you haven’t got burned. But when I fell for you it was less bright incandescent sparks and more like a roaring fire. There was warmth and heat and life in it. We couldn’t keep it going back then, we were too young, too damaged, too untrusting of each other. But now we’ve got this second chance,” and he held her close as they drifted back to sleep.

The third time it was he who awoke to feel her mouth upon him. Her hand gripped the base of his shaft, stroking firmly in counterpoint to her mouth as she took him in, running her tongue under the tip to the point of sensitivity that made his eyes roll back in his head. Bobbing up and down, the other hand cradling his balls, she had him feeling weak and wonderful and incredibly powerful all at the same time. Feeling his orgasm rise, he urged her up to straddle him, and thrust into her from below while flicking her clit at the point of their joining. He came first, but she followed close behind him and she slumped downed onto his body. 

In the dark, as their bodies cooled, she whispered “I love you.”

His heart swelled and he held her close as he replied, “I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took a bit longer. Had to replot to fix a massive hole I created unintentionally.
> 
> Loving all your comments. Thank you everyone.


	19. Nineteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veronica and Logan uncover some secrets.

Veronica exited the shower for the second morning in a row to the realisation that she still had no clean underwear. She had awoken alone but with a note on the pillow next to her from Logan to say he was going for a run. She couldn’t quite figure out where his energy came from, but remembered him telling her in Monterey of the exercise habits he had developed to manage his addictions. She normally ran a few mornings a week, but with her body feeling well used from great sex, this morning she simply hadn’t wanted to get up.

She could hear movement in the kitchen and then saw the bed had been made and lying on it was a bag emblazoned with the La Perla brand. A note on top said ‘I owe you these’, she reached in to pull out a half dozen sets of underwear in exquisite lace in assorted colours and styles. Her first instinct was to reject them, but the realisation that that was truly cutting off her nose to spite her face struck her. If she didn’t take them, she would be resorting to the desperation pair of underwear she kept at the very back of the drawer. The pair with the unraveling elastic for emergency use only. She made a decision not to think about it any longer, grabbed a set, removed the tags and put them on. They fit, score one for Logan.

She finished dressing for work and headed out to the kitchen to see Logan in running shorts and tshirt drinking coffee with Mac at the table. Bending down to kiss him, she swiped his coffee and took a sip before cradling the cup in her hands, and saying “Thank you.”

“For my coffee or?” Logan asked, leaving it hanging.

“Both,” she said simply.

“Well you’re welcome but I want my coffee back,” he replied. 

She reluctantly handed it back to him and went to get her own cup from the kitchen. Logan drained the rest of his and got up, saying he was heading for the shower before heading into her room.

Mac raised her eyebrows at Veronica, “what was that about? she asked.

“Logan just picked me up something I needed,” Veronica answered a little too quickly.

“Curiouser and curiouser,” said Mac. “By the looks of that little flush on your face, it wasn’t toothpaste.”

“Underwear, ok. I didn’t have time to wash this weekend and he bought me underwear.”

“So you’re already at the boyfriend buying you underwear stage. Guessing it’s not the three pack of cotton bikinis from Target type,” said Mac.

“La Perla,” said Veronica. Then she followed up saying “a half dozen sets”

Mac whistled. “Fancy underwear. Sexy or slutty?”

“It’s just beautiful. Sexy too, but beautiful. And I’m taking your advice.”

“Which advice? I’ve given so so much, over so many years,” Mac said with a cheeky grin.

Veronica rolled her eyes but answered, “the advice where you tell me to just say thank you for a thoughtful gift instead of refusing to keep it or insisting you take it back.”

“Good,” said Mac, but thinking there was no way she was mentioning to Veronica that the lingerie was probably worth thousands. “But you know what La Perla means, don’t you?”

“What?”

“Well if Victoria’s secret is ‘ohh, you’re sexy and I want to do you’,” said Mac.

Veronica answered, “yeah.”

“La Perla is ‘I worship the ground you walk on and I want to do you’,” said Mac.

“Yeah, it is, isn’t it,” replied Veronica with a smile.

“And you don’t look surprised by that at all.”

“I love him, Mac. And he loves me. We just have to figure out the rest.”

“You’re worried that Gory Sorokin is going to find out he’s still alive, aren’t you?”

“Yes. So I want to make sure the threat is over for good,” said Veronica.

Mac headed off to shower and change while Veronica put together breakfast for all of them.

Veronica and Logan were sitting at the table eating when Mac came back out. “I was thinking,” said Mac. “That video of Gory, that’s probably not enough to convict him. It was scary but it was ultimately a dubious confession filmed under torture. He did have an electric shock collar around his neck.”

“I’m kind of counting on it. I figure that all that video can do is give the Feds information to start an investigation. I’m hoping the two pieces of information will be enough to get them off my back, but it will take some time for them to gather evidence, so I’m hoping the time gap will be enough to dissociate Duncan’s returning from them.

Have you considered Gory’s confession might have been a fake like Jake’s?” asked Logan. “A set up.”

Veronica said, “No, I hadn’t. But it’s a good thought. He could have set that up so that if it gets into the hands of law enforcement he would know it had to come from the Castle.”

“We could try to find the location of the cabin,” suggested Mac. “It probably wouldn’t be in their own names, but we may be able to find it in the name of a shell company. Searches on shell companies may turn up a property ownership. Or the other way, if we could narrow down the area, a property ownership search might dig up the shell companies.”

“How would you propose doing that,” asked Logan?

“A lot of it is data searches. This is San Francisco, we outsource most of that. Then we get it in and run the cross referencing ourselves. We just need a couple of starting points,” said Veronica.

“Like?” asked Logan.

Mac said, “In the video, Gory said his father and uncle brought the bodies to the cabin. It would have to be reasonably close driving distance from where they are based. They wouldn’t want to risk a long journey with bodies in a vehicle.”

“Good thought. It was a mountain cabin and he mentioned a boat so we focus on mountain areas near a river or lake near their base for property searches,” said Veronica.

“I can take that,” said Mac. “We have a couple of good contract workers who will be able to search property data records easily.”

“Are you sure you want to get involved, Mac?” asked Logan.

“Pfft,” replied Mac. “This is peripheral. Realtors do these searches all the time. Won’t even be noticed.”

“I need to hunt down a legitimate business linked to the Sorokins. From there we can kick off the company hunt,” said Veronica.

“Won’t the FBI already have this,” said Logan.

“Good point. That gives me an idea. I need to talk to James, and maybe Roberto,” said Veronica.

“And what do you want me to do?” asked Logan.

Veronica said, “Well it’s Tuesday, so I think you have Abnormal Psychology at ten. Go to school, Logan. This is just information gathering, I promise you. I’ll contact you when we get anything, but it will take time. There’s a lot to collect.”

“You know my class timetable?” said Logan. “I don’t think I’ll do much going there today,” and I’m not really built to stand on the sidelines, he thought.

“Logan, yesterday notwithstanding, it’s best if we look like we are going on with normal life. Mac goes to work, I go to work and you go to class. I promise I’ll contact you if we find anything useful. You’ll be half an hour away,” said Veronica.

“Okay. But I insist on being there if you talk to Jake Kane again,” he said.

Veronica stiffened and Mac sucked in a breath. “You insist, do you?” said Veronica.

Logan realised his misstep, closed his eyes and said, “Sorry. Look, I want to insist, but what I really want is you not going up against him without someone completely on your side there. And since he’s used me to threaten you, I want that person to be me. Please,” he pleaded. “Jake’s a manipulator. I wouldn’t want to go up against him alone myself.”

Mollified, Veronica nodded, “Okay. I won’t go into it alone and I will contact you, but I don’t think he’ll come back to me so soon. He’s made his ultimatum. He’d look weak coming back so quickly.”

“How are you going to get the disk into the hands of the FBI, especially if you want to make sure there is no connection to you or to the Castle? I’m assuming the only reason you don’t want to connect it to the Castle is because of Duncan,” said Mac.

“I’m not sure yet. There’s always the anonymous letter to fall back on, but I would prefer it wasn’t postmarked California,” said Veronica. “I have to head in to work.”

In the law offices, Veronica spoke to James in their office, “So, we located a list of Castle members up until their 2007 intake. A women’s group at Hearst had obtained it then but hadn’t been able to do much with it.”

“2007 at Hearst, you say. That was when you were there, wasn’t it,” said James.

“Yes, yes it was,” replied Veronica. “It is a handy coincidence. I knew some of the women in the group, but I wasn’t involved with them myself.”

“A very handy coincidence, indeed,” said James, clearly not believing that at all.

Veronica gave him a hard copy of the list. “I was told the society was formed by Hearst at Stanford where his son went and at Hearst which he founded. We think that is what the H and S at the end of each name means.

James looked at the list and whistled. “That’s a very impressive set of names. I recognise quite a few.”

“Yeah,” said Veronica. “A couple here are very interesting,” she said and pointed to Andrew Mathis and Philip Carson. “These two are Logan’s current lawyer and the judge who officiated his name change and who prevented his sister from having him declared dead. They’ve known all along that he was alive and haven’t let Sorokin know.”

“Why? Do you think it is just because they are trying to minimise their exposure to Sorokin?” asked James.

“Could be. I guess there is the possibility that if Logan was to actually be killed and his death was traced back to Sorokin, the only run in Logan ever had with him was at Hearst. Jake knows I knew the link between Sorokin and him and the Castle. He might reasonably expect that if it became known that Logan had been killed by Sorokin, I would expose anything I know. That would also explain why they prevented Logan from telling me he was alive,” said Veronica.

“Do you actually have information on the Sorokins, Veronica?” asked James.

“I might, but it’s not certain. There is a possibility it is fake so I’m trying to find out,” she said. “It would help me to find out the names of any legitimate businesses the Sorokin have.”

James looked at her shrewdly. “You’re trying to gather enough evidence on Gory Sorokin to trade the FBI.”

“I’m seeing if that’s an option,” said Veronica carefully. 

“I don’t think I need to tell you to be careful. These people are very dangerous,” replied James. “I did find out about the plea deal. It’s good, in that there would be no jail time, but it would still be a felony and you would lose your PI licence. At the same time, they currently have insufficient evidence for an indictment and Duncan Kane is not implicating you at this time. Personally, I think he can wait it out. The pressure to close out the case is mounting, especially in the circumstances with the Manning’s and that Duncan is willing to return and plead to charges.”

“So why did Jake push me so hard? Their lawyers must know this as well,” said Veronica.

“I don’t know,” said James. “But I think that is what we need to find out. I’ll see if I can get the company names for you.”

James came through and a couple of hours later Veronica had arranged searches looking for links through directors and locations. Knowing that all she could do now was wait, she turned her mind to Logan’s Foundation. Logan had forwarded her the email from Stanford, but all it confirmed was that Robert Carson had attended Stanford on a full scholarship paid for by the Castaway Foundation and that she had received a partial scholarship. She looked up Robert Carson. It was a reasonably common name but she found the right one. The son of Californian judge Philip Carson and his first wife Gabrielle, Robert had gone to school in LA, but had gone on to Stanford and was now at Columbia. Current address is Columbia student accommodation.

She decided to go deeper on Judge Carson, and found he had also graduated Stanford and attended Columbia Law, like father like son. Married twice, he had two children, a boy from his first marriage, Robert, and a girl from his second marriage. His first wife, Gabrielle had remarried and divorced again and now lived in New York. That rang a bell for her and when she looked her up, she found one Gabrielle Conothan had married twice, first to Philip Carson having the aforementioned son and then to Andrew Mathis when said son was a teenager. After divorcing Andrew, she had relocated to New York and where she owned a gallery and appeared to attend a lot of parties.

Finding that Philip Carson’s ex-wife had gone on to marry Logan’s attorney was a surprise, and she wondered if Logan had ever met her. She texted him, ‘Did u ever meet your lawyers ex-wife, Gabrielle?’

He responded quickly, ‘No, why?’

‘She was Philip Carson’s first wife. Robert Carson is Philip’s son and was Andrew’s step-son’ replied Veronica.

Her phone rang a couple of minutes later. “Andrew is paying for his stepson’s education with a scholarship from the foundation?” said Logan.

“Looks like it,” replied Veronica. “But my guess is that it is more likely a favour for the judge for keeping your name change quiet and making sure you don’t get declared dead. But, I do wonder if it is significant that she married two Castle members.”

“Maybe. It’s certainly an incestuous little web,” said Logan. Changing the subject, he asked, “how are the searches going? Did you get anything from James?”

“Yeah, he was able to get some of the company names of the legitimate arms of the Sorokin empire. I have sent those off to a couple of the contractors we use for these sort of searches. I’ve split them up so it’s not obvious what we are looking for, but as Mac said, data mining is bread and butter work here in San Francisco. Hopefully we get results by tomorrow.”

“You haven’t heard from Jake?” asked Logan.

“No. Andrea did leave me a message that she has lined up a lawyer for me. No-one who went to Stanford or Hearst, just to make sure we avoid the Castle. We’ll meet with him tomorrow morning,” she said.

“Okay. I have to go back to Monterey tomorrow for work and I know you wanted me to stay down there on Thursday when Wallace arrives, but maybe we could reconsider. I’d like to be here Friday if we are supposed to go up against Jake again then,” said Logan.

Veronica considered, “maybe that’s a good idea. I don’t like springing you on Wallace like that but in the grand scheme of things, it might be the better idea. Can we talk about it tonight?”

Logan was relieved and said, “Sure, tonight is good. Ah, I’ve got a seminar in about five minutes and then I’m supposed to meet with some students about a group project. I should be finished by about four thirty or five. I can give you a call to see if you are ready to finish up at work then if you like.”

“That could work. I’ve got some other work to catch up on, but I can probably finish around then. I’ve got to go too.” Then she tried out something she’d never done before saying, “Love you, bye.”

An enormous smile broke on Logan’s face, “Love you too.”

Veronica hung up thinking that telling him how she felt wasn’t as hard as she had thought. She’d always thought people used the words too easily and they meant little, but saying that to Logan who had always just wanted someone to really love him meant everything.

That evening, Mac’s boyfriend was over and the four of them went to dinner at Veronica’s favourite Thai restaurant a few blocks from their house. Veronica found it fascinating to watch Logan interact with Alex. There was still the quick wit and humour she remembered, but the biting sarcasm was more sparingly deployed.

“You live in Monterey, but you’re at school at Berkeley?” asked Alex. “How does that work?”

“My job is in Monterey,” replied Logan. “But I started at Berkeley a couple of years back, part time initially. I finish sophomore year credits at the end of this year and have been thinking of going full time next semester.”

“Don’t you miss living on campus? College was a blast,” said Alex.

Logan laughed and said, “you remember being at college, freshman year, there would always be some older student hanging around, going to the parties, desperately trying to hold onto his youth.” At Alex’s nod Logan continued, “if I was on campus now, I’d be that guy. No thanks.”

Alex considered, “You’re right. But do you miss having that part of the college experience?”

“I went to college straight out of high school, back when I knew Veronica and Mac from before,” said Logan. “I’m pretty sure I jammed four years of the college party experience into a year and a half. Didn’t really do the learning part. My parents both died in my last two years of high school and I inherited some money, ended up out of control. Dropped out, straightened out, then got this job with the Castaway Foundation. It’s good. I feel like I’m doing something worthwhile. And now meeting Veronica again, it feels like I’ve got everything I need.” He reached for Veronica’s hand and gave it a squeeze.

“Well good on you. You should come to poker night tomorrow, Will. Meet Mike and some of the other guys,” said Alex.

“Sounds good, but I can’t tomorrow. I’ve got to be back in Monterey for work. Next time?” replied Logan.

“Sure. We usually do something most Wednesdays. These two,” he said nodding to Veronica and Mac, “have a long standing girls night on Wednesdays.”

“Well I think this Wednesday night will involve making sure we’ve got fresh sheets and towels for the pullout,” said Veronica. At Alex’s blank look, she said, “Wallace arrives Thursday.”

“I forgot. So Harry’s on Friday night then,” Alex said, referring to a neighbourhood bar with good beer and food.

“That’s the plan,” replied Mac. 

Back at the apartment, they decided to watch a movie. Veronica took advantage of Alex disappearing into Mac’s room to make a call to fill in Mac and Logan on what she had learned. “We should get the property searches and the company searches tomorrow, so we can start looking for any correlation. But something else is bothering me. James seems to think that there is pressure to close this case out, and with the circumstances as they are with the Mannings, Duncan is unlikely to face any jail time even if he doesn’t reveal who helped him. He said they just need to wait it out a little, and that the Kane’s lawyers would know this.”

“So why is Jake pressuring you to confess?” asked Mac.

“Either there is some reason that he doesn’t want to wait even a few weeks,” put forward Veronica.

“Or he knew you would look for a reason not to, and is counting on that,” finished Logan.

“Do you think he might be using you to get information to the authorities about the Sorokins,” said Mac. “Maybe he is using you to get rid of them so that he looks like he isn’t involved.”

“That’s a dangerous game,” said Logan. “Oh Mac, Veronica also found out today that Judge Carson’s first wife and the mother of Robert Carson was also married to my lawyer.”

“Wow,” said Mac. “What was her name?”

“Gabrielle Conothan,” said Logan.

“Shit, Logan. I’ve just realised why that name is familiar,” said Veronica. “It may be a coincidence, but I think I’ve stopped believing in coincidences. Celeste Kane. Her maiden name was Conothan.”


	20. Twenty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little sweet, steamy interlude before Logan returns home to Monterey.

It hadn’t taken them long to search up Gabrielle Mathis née Carson née Conothan and discover she was Celeste Kane’s older sister.

“Incestuous little bunch, aren’t they?” said Mac. “All tied to a rotten little secret society.”

“Could just be that that is who they socialise with,” said Logan.

“Still incestuous” repeated Mac.

“But the important thing is whether or not it is significant to us,” said Veronica, “ and I just don’t know yet.”

Logan thought aloud, “if Robert Carson is Gabrielle’s son, that makes him Celeste’s nephew and Duncan’s cousin. That’s kind of messing with my head, because he’d be the same age as we are and I don’t remember DK ever mentioning him.”

They all looked at each other for a few moments in confused solidarity before Alex came back to watch the movie.

***

That night, Logan and Veronica lay together on their sides facing each other in her bed, sated. “I’m going to miss this tomorrow night,” said Logan. “I’d forgotten how much I liked just being in bed with you.”

“Before it was mostly just sleepovers when my dad was out of town,” said Veronica. 

“Yes, but your dad did spend a lot of time out of town,” he said with a smile, as his hand roamed lightly down her arm, then her flank and then up again. 

“Didn’t seem like it was often enough,” grumbled Veronica, her hand stroking across his pecs.

He laughed, “I remember a particular night at the Grand that summer before Hearst. Your dad was away, and we played poker.”

She looked up to his eyes, “I remember that. It was strip poker and you were trying so hard to win.”

“Yeah. Well I wasn’t wearing very much to start with and I really really wanted to get you naked. As memory serves me, you weren’t trying very hard not to lose,” said Logan, kissing her forehead while his hand drifted to her breast.

Her breath hitched as his thumb traced ever so lightly over her nipple. “I still kind of felt like I needed an excuse back then. We hadn’t actually had sex yet.”

“That was the night I first went down on you,” said Logan. His hand cupped her breast.

“I couldn’t believe what you were doing, that you would like it. And oh my god, it was incredible and I was so embarrassed,” said Veronica. “Afterwards, when I opened my eyes, you were looking at me with most self satisfied smile I’ve ever seen.” She slid her hand down to his waist, his hip.

“You were so beautiful when you came.” His voice deepened as the casual, soft caresses started to become more heated, as her hand ran down to his leg. “Made me feel like the most powerful man alive.”

“Um hmm,” she murmured huskily. “Then you let me explore you, your body. Find out a little bit of what you liked, what you didn’t like, where you were ticklish,” and at that she slipped her hand around to the back of his thigh to pull on the light dusting of hair that made his skin sensitive and simultaneously bit down lightly on his flat nipple.

His sharp indrawn breath and the jerk of his hips that thrust his burgeoning erection at her stomach told her she had pin point accuracy with her initial offensive. “You starting this?”

“Maybe, whatcha going to do about it?” she replied mischievously, face against his chest. But at the same time, the fingers that had tugged his leg hair smoothed down over the skin, soothing the sting.

“Oh, I think you’re going down,” he said.

“Pretty sure I already did,” she quipped back, fast as lightening, referring to their activities in the shower before they had made it to bed.

A quick burst of laughter erupted from him, “I can’t believe you just said that. You’ve developed a dirty mouth, Miss Mars,” he said, sliding his hand down to lightly pinch her ass.

“Just matching my mouth to your mind,” she replied as her hand slid up the back of his thigh.

“I’m not sure you really want to start a tickle fight here and now,” stroking his hand to sooth the pinch, but inching closer to her centre.

“You chicken?” she asked with amusement as her fingers flirted with the edge of his thatch at the juncture where thigh met groin.

“Uh Uh. But I also remember that you get loud. And while I’m not worried about facing your roommate and her boyfriend in the morning, you might be embarrassed,” he said, fingertips just brushing her centre. 

She pouted, “I hate it when you’re right. But why wouldn’t you be embarrassed?” Her thighs parted just a tiny bit to allow him better access.

“I’m not going to feel embarrassed by another guy thinking I can make you scream, and Mac already thinks I’m a sex god,” he said with a smirk, taking advantage of her parted thighs to dip two fingers into her wet centre.

“Oh god, I had forgotten your ego,” she said, made a little breathless by his touch, but moving her own hand to stroke his perineum with a fingernail.

He shuddered but replied a little smugly, “Hey, I wasn’t even here when she formed that idea. Exactly how did that happen, may I ask? You’re not exactly the kiss ‘n tell type”. He slowly traced the outer edges of her labia.

“Some other time,” she said, shifting upwards to kiss him, while the hand at his groin shifted to gently but firmly wrap around him. 

The kiss was unhurried, exploratory, tongues tangling. Their hands played with each other’s body, his fingers dipping into her wet centre, her hand pumping his erection slowly, feeling it thicken and harden. It felt like they stayed that way for eternity, gradually ratcheting up their arousal until eventually he slipped one finger out and inched it towards her clit.

So heightened was her arousal, one feather light touch was all it took for her to growl “now” against his mouth. His hand retreated to hook her leg over his, rolling her in towards him in the process. Hers shifted to position him at her entrance where he swiftly thrust into her. They rocked together experimentally until finding a pace and rhythm that inched them unhurriedly to peak.

Logan lifted the covers over them as she lay replete afterwards lying half across his chest. “Excellent distraction, Mars, but I’ll find out sometime,” he said.

All was quiet for a moment and he thought she was asleep until he heard her sleepily reply, “you can try, Echolls.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does the major character death warning in the tags put people off? It’s not really true, so thinking of removing it. Opinions please 🙏🙏
> 
> Edit: I removed the warning.


	21. Twentyone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan returns to Monterey and catches up with Jack.
> 
> Veronica tells Keith about Logan's return and has a breakthrough on the case

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying out some new formatting.

Logan was up early for his return trip to Monterey. Veronica had got up with him, and they sat at the table drinking coffee and eating breakfast. “You’ll let me know if you find anything useful,” he said, not for the first time.

“Logan, as I’ve already said several times, I’ll let you know,” said Veronica with a hint of exasperation in her voice. “I don’t think the lawyer will have anything new to say and the rest of the day will be taken up with cross-matching the realty lists with company data. I just have to spend the next two days getting myself prepared to deal with Jake on Friday. You’ll be back Thursday after Wallace gets here, anyway.”

“I know, I know. It’s just difficult to go with all this stuff hanging out there. I don’t trust Jake Kane at all,” he said.

“Truer words, never spoken,” she agreed. “Ah, I need to ask you something else.”

“Go ahead, anything.”

“I want to tell my dad,” she said.

“Okay,” he replied.

“I want to tell him the whole thing, the whole story,” she said.

“Veronica, while I know your dad is not my biggest fan, he is your biggest supporter. It’s okay, good even. I’m not worried about your dad revealing my identity, he is discreet and knows how to keep a secret. In fact he may have heard stuff about the Kane’s that may help.” Logan saw from her expression that this wasn’t what she was concerned about. “Are you worried about telling him about us, that we are together again?”

“Maybe a little. I know why we moved so fast and you know why, but,” she started, then paused.

Logan continued, “it’s not easy to explain, even to people we know.”

“Yeah,” she finished. “I don’t want him to judge us, you, on the past.”

“Look, I’m not ashamed of the person I’ve become. But I’m happy now, too, because of you,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere. He’ll come round with time.” Logan kissed her and said, “tell him anything you need. I’m an open book to the Mars family.” Veronica kissed him back, and he held on tight to her, saying, “I really wish I didn’t have to go now. I don’t want to, but I must, I must.” They kissed again and he headed out.

Veronica checked the time, and realising it was still fairly early, she decided to shower and get ready for work before calling her dad.

***

Logan headed down the highway to Monterey. He really didn’t want to go, not just because of all the issues that were still up in the air but also because he didn’t want to leave Veronica. _It’s just one night_ , he reminded himself over and over. He had some things he could do though, at Castaway to pin down the scholarship problems. His phone rang and he answered it with the car handsfree button, “Hello?”

“Hi Will, it’s Jack. Are you in Monterey today?” said Jack Maxwell.

“Just on my way back now, Jack. What’s up?” replied Logan.

“I got a call from a mutual acquaintance. He says he’ll be back in Cali soon and wants to visit us, Annie and I that is,” said Jack. “I thought you might want to know. There is some other stuff too, but maybe we could catch up for lunch.”

Logan ears pricked and he wondered if Jack was talking about Jake or Duncan. Sounded more like Duncan from the ‘back in Cali’ reference. “Lunch would be good. Sandwich shop or..." Logan left it hanging, to see if Jack wanted a more private setting.

“I fancy the taco truck down the way,” referring to a place he and Logan frequented. One that Logan knew would afford them privacy.

“Sounds good. I fancy Mexican, too” said Logan. “Twelve thirty okay?”

“Works for me. See you then,” said Jack and hung up.

Logan spent the rest of the drive thinking about what Jack hadn’t been telling him in that phone call.

***

Veronica sat on the edge of her bed, uncharacteristically nervous about speaking to her father. The last time she had felt this uncomfortable was that fateful day in Neptune after the election. She shook herself and thought, time to put on my big girl pants, and dialled.

“Hello daughter of mine, missed hearing from you Sunday,” said Keith.

“Hey Dad,” replied Veronica, a bit subdued .

“So what were you up to Sunday. Your text was a little short on detail,” said Keith, wondering what was up for her to call before work and sound so quiet.

Veronica hesitated, _how does one explain to your father that your ex-boyfriend has arisen from the dead, you’ve got back together but someone from your past is trying to get you to confess to aiding and abetting a kidnapping?_ “Ah, things have got a bit hectic up here. Have you got a bit of time to talk?”

“For you, always.” Keith’s reply was lighthearted, but she could hear the underlying concern in his tone.

“Last week I had a job that took me down to Monterey,” she started, and then to get it out quickly, followed up with, “I ran into an old flame.”

“So Duncan Kane is already back, I’d heard rumours that the Kane’s were arranging some sort of deal for that,” said Keith.

“No! What?” Veronica said, startled. “No, not Duncan. Logan. He’s not as dead as we were led to believe.”

“Logan? Logan Echolls. Are you okay honey?” He asked, concerned.

“Dad, I’m fine. It’s true. You can even check with Mac. She’s seen him too,” said Veronica, keen to reassure him she was indeed, still sane. “Ah, he didn’t actually die in France, he just kind of disappeared and Trina held that funeral when she was trying to have him declared dead. He was in rehab. He didn’t know she had done it, not until after."

“And he just decided to stay that way? Where has he been, these last years, while you grieved for him?” There was more than a touch of anger in Keith’s voice.

“He didn’t mean to, but it’s a long story” said Veronica.

“I’ve got time,” said Keith, so she proceeded to tell him the story. About the attempts on his life, the od’s and the name change. About his lawyer concealing his existence and about Castaway. 

“He said the idea came from you, dad.”

“What do you mean?” asked Keith.

“You went to visit him, when I was away in Virginia the summer after freshman year. He said you asked him not to stop me from leaving Neptune. That I needed a chance, because so many of my chances had been taken away. My scholarship came from him, dad, too. I just didn’t know it. And he thought I did,” Veronica spoke passionately now, more passionately than Keith had heard her speak for about anything for a long time.

He sighed, “Logan Echolls. Do you still have feelings for him?”

She paused. “Yeah, I do. And he does for me.”

“So should I surmise that the two of you are planning on rekindling you relationship?” asked Keith.

Veronica started to answer, “um…”

Keith filled in the blank, “you already have.”

“Yeah,” she said simply.

“And Duncan Kane, if he comes back?”

“I don’t love him the way I love Logan. I never really did,” she said.

Keith’s heart dropped when he heard her saying she loved Logan. “Be careful. That boy’s got a darkness about him,” he said.

“He had a darkness, dad. It’s not there now, not like it was,” she said. “Look him up dad. Look up William Lester and see if that’s a man you would be proud to know.”

“Okay.” Sometimes Keith knew to leave well enough alone. Nothing would be helped by him picking a fight with Veronica over Logan. He had always been the boy she had cared most about, the one she stood up for, the one she loved the most. He was also the one who could, and had, hurt her the most.

“There’s more. Not about Logan, well not completely. Jake Kane came up here to see me. He wants me to confess to helping Duncan escape the country. He said they won’t be able to get Duncan a non-custodial agreement if he doesn’t reveal his accomplices. Duncan isn’t saying anything but Jake was pushing hard. He threatened to let Gory know that Logan is alive if I didn’t do what he wanted.”

“What?” said Keith, alarmed.

We’ve worked out it’s a bluff. What we can’t figure out is why. Indications from within the FBI say there’s pressure to close the case, especially since the Manning’s were convicted. Duncan will get off with a fine at most.”

“So why is Jake pressuring you?” asked Keith.

“I think he’s trying to get rid of Gory Sorokin, but he doesn’t want his name associated with it in any way,” she said. “He would have known I’d go looking for an information trade with the Feds and that I had the information from the tape.”

“Wouldn’t he be afraid of his own secret coming out?” said Keith.

“His confession is embarrassing but not illegal. And it’s fake. It’s supposedly at boarding school, but Jake never went,” said Veronica.

“No, prom king at Neptune High, I believe,” his voice a little tense.

Recalling that her mother had been Jake’s girlfriend back then and had carried out an affair with Jake through most of their marriage, Veronica hurried to move on, “what I can’t figure out is why, and why now? Can you have a sniff around in Neptune, see if there is anything that might give a reason.”

“Sure,” He said. “Veronica…’

“Yeah, dad,” she answered.

He spoke cautiously, “Be careful up there.”

She replied, “I am, dad. Honestly. I know the Kane’s and the Sorokin’s are very serious.” She knew he was talking about Logan as well, but chose to ignore it.

Keith hesitated a moment, “Good, good,” but knowing he was too late to warn her about losing her heart to Logan, again.

***

Veronica’s meeting with the defence lawyer was surprisingly uneventful. The lawyer repeated the advice that going to trial could be difficult for her if Aaron’s trial was brought up, and that in that event, taking a plea deal may be less risky. Veronica acknowledged it, but said she wanted to keep that as a worst case scenario. 

Afterwards, she started on the laborious and time consuming processing of cross referencing the property data searches with the company searches she had received in that morning. The initial computer cross reference had turned up nothing, but Veronica had her suspicions and kept searching, painstakingly building a map of the interwoven companies and directors, then turning to the property searches, starting on lakeside properties.

James and Roberto stuck their heads inside the room she had commandeered for the work to see what she was up to. James whistled, impressed, “you’ve done a huge amount here.”

“You could say I’m very motivated,” responded Veronica. “I haven’t found anything yet though. I’m hoping it’s not a colossal waste of time.”

“Looking at your map,” Roberto said, indicating the map she had up on one wall, covered in colour coding and crosshatching, “you’ve still got a lot to cover. I’ve got a couple of hours to spare, could give you a hand.”

Her instinctive thought was _no, this is my problem_ , but she forced herself to reconsider. Something about dealing with the Kane’s and all the problems stemming from her youth had also brought back some of her old behaviour patterns. The therapy she had been though in college, after she thought Logan had died, had also spotlighted for her the trust issues she had developed. The uncomfortable realisation that while she would do anything for her friends, she never really believed anyone would do the same for her. That she could ask people for favours, but never really trusted her friends or even her dad to really fix anything, because the only person who could really fix or solve anything was her. That had been a painful lesson, but had been a vital step to her being able to let go of the destructive belief that Logan’s supposed death had been her fault. She wasn’t going to let that hard fought change get trampled on by Jake Kane and Gory Sorokin.

She had been working with Roberto for over a year. He was smart, practical and trustworthy and she would be crazy to turn down his offer. “That would be helpful, thank you. Why don’t you take the green section,” indicating a coloured section on the map. I’m doing lakefront first as that was suggested.”

“Okay, I’ll get on it,” he replied.

They worked companionably side by side, asking each other questions from time to time, until after about an hour, Roberto spotted something odd. “Quite a few of the shell companies have Russian sounding names, and there’s an ownership on this property that says ‘Peerstroika LLC. It’s an odd name, but Russian sounding and I’m sure I’ve seen something similar on the board.”

“There’s a shell company called ‘Perestroika LLC’. I’ll grab the data on that one and see if it matches,” said Veronica. The two of them looked over the company record and found it matched down the line, all bar the spelling.

“It’s clever,” said Roberto. “A tiny little spelling error, easily excused as a mistake, but effectively stymies computer matching of the records. I think you’ve got your link, Mars.”

“Yeah, I think we have. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it,” replied Veronica. She texted Logan to let him know she had found the link.

***

Logan was a bit frustrated after his morning. He had hoped to find other fake scholarships, but it really didn’t look like that there were any. He knew it was good news, but he had really wanted to have more incriminating evidence against his lawyer. He headed off to lunch nursing a slight headache brought on by not enough sleep, a two hour drive and a few hours cross checking names and awards on endless emails and board papers to an ultimately unsatisfactory conclusion. Just getting outside and heading towards the waters’ edge did wonders to clear his head.

This was a favourite lunch place of theirs and noting that Jack hadn’t arrived yet, he ordered for both of them. Jack arrived as the order was handed over, and they headed out towards an outdoor table out of the way of the busier paths.

“What’s going on Jack?” asked Logan

Jack looked at the younger man, “I got a call from Duncan. He said he was going to be returning soon and he wants to visit Annie and I. Bring his daughter and girlfriend to meet us and maybe see what it’s like in Monterey.”

Logan replied, “Yeah, we heard he was looking to cut a deal with the FBI so he could return,” but was thinking _DK mentioned a girlfriend? I hope he isn’t assuming he will be back with Veronica._ Putting that aside, he turned his mind back to the conversation with Jack and said, “Jake was up in San Francisco on Monday.”

“You saw him? He knows you’re alive?” asked Jack.

“Yeah. In fact it looks like he’s known all along. Both my lawyer, who arranged my name change, and the judge who authorised it are both Castle members,” said Logan.

“What?” exclaimed Jack.

“Yeah. It kind of makes sense, though now. In high school when I was seventeen, after my mom died and my dad was arrested, I had myself emancipated and since I wanted lawyers completely separate from my dad, I asked Duncan to ask Jake if he could recommend a lawyer. Andrew Mathis was who he sent me to. 

“Tangled web,” said Jack

“Yeah,” replied Logan

“I don’t think there was any ulterior motive there,” said Jack. “I mean, this was a long time ago. It’s the thing with groups like the Castle. It was always about promoting one another, doing favours for one another. Him recommending Mathis was probably just one member sending potentially lucrative business to another.”

“Yeah,” said Logan again. He debated with himself for a moment of two about telling Jack the rest and then decided it was not likely to get any worse, and said, “There’s more…about Jake,” he started. “It’s not good. He wants Veronica to confess to helping Duncan escape with his daughter. He says that the FBI will only negotiate a non-custodial sentence if they also get anyone who helped him. If Veronica does that, it’s goodbye to her job and her future plans. She’ll lose her PI licence and be unlikely be able to become a lawyer. He also threatened me. He implicated that if she doesn’t do what he wants, he would let ‘friends’ know where I was.”

Jack sucked in a breath. “That’s not good, not right. He must be desperate to get Duncan back.”

“Except that it’s bs. We have a contact with the FBI who says that the deal will be done whatever happens, and that Jake’s contacts and lawyers would know that,” said Logan.

“So why?” asked Jack.

“Not sure. We think he’s trying to use Veronica to expose the Sorokins to the FBI. He thinks she is in possession of some damning information and he wants to get free of them but keep his hands clean,” said Logan.

“If he was a better hacker he could have done it himself,” mused Jack. “But he was always more business than tech skills.”

Logan stared at Jack as if he had grown a third eye, saying slowly, “Jake Kane was a hacker.”

“Well, yeah,” said Jack. “We all were to some degree back then. He just wasn’t all that good. Our joke was that he was always going to have to pay me to do it for him. It’s not like we did anything terribly serious. We weren’t hacking into the Pentagon or anything.”

“Okay,” said Logan. “I guess I had just never seen him in that light before. For a long time he was just my best friend’s dad who seemed to be pretty cool, or at least better than mine. Then he was my girlfriend’s father and I was trying to keep on his good side. After Lilly died, he just seemed broken, you know. Celeste became brittle and even more focused on Duncan, but Jake was often just sad. I never really think of him being my age.”

“I was surprised when he married Celeste,” said Jack. “When we first met, he was dating another girl. Leah or Lianne or something like that, and he seemed to really care for her.”

“Lianne,” said Logan. “He didn’t marry her, though.”

“You know about her?” asked Jack.

“Yeah. She is actually Veronica’s mother,” said Logan. “She had an affair with Jake that pretty much lasted for most of her marriage to Veronica’s dad. Celeste hated Veronica.”

“That’s a lot to take in,” said Jack.

“It wasn’t exactly a picnic to live it, either,” replied Logan.

“Look, I don’t want to cause any problems but it would be normal for me to call Jake after hearing from Duncan. I won’t say anything about this but I’ll let you know if he says anything that might be relevant to you. What he’s doing is wrong, but,” Jack paused before continuing, “he’s been my friend for a long time and this isn’t the kind of person he was before. Maybe he needs a little reminder of that before things get any worse.”

“Okay. But be careful Jack. He might not be the person you remember, either.”

***

“I want to come up tonight. My bed is looking too big and too lonely without you,” said Logan. He was standing on the balcony of his bedroom in Monterey in the late afternoon looking out over the ocean as he spoke to Veronica.

“Don’t you have to work tomorrow?

“Well, yes but I don’t actually have to go into the office for that. I’ve been starting to move to managing more of it from home because I will have to move up nearer to Berkeley next year. I have a lot more on-campus classes and the two hour commute won’t work,” said Logan.

Veronica had a moment of pure excitement as she thought, _he’ll be near me, too,_ until it sunk in that if she went to law school, she would be on the other side of the country. “Um, I kind of have a standing date with Mac. Girls only Wednesday night. We’ve been doing it for years and I don’t want to be the friend who pikes for the new boyfriend.”

“Oh yeah, I remember Alex mentioning it. They have poker night and you catch up with Mac,” said Logan. “But how come you don’t play poker?”

“Please, I wipe the floor with them,” said Veronica indignantly.

“They won’t let you play anymore?” asked Logan.

“No,” she said with a huff.

Logan laughed. “What about afterwards? I could meet you later.”

“I don’t know, Logan. We have to get ready for Wallace’s arrival tomorrow and it’s a really long drive for you and …” she trailed off, unsure.

Sensing her indecision, Logan opted to do the opposite of what he would have done in the past, by letting her off the hook. “It’s okay, Veronica. It’s just one night, and much as I want to be with you, I’ll survive. You do what you need to do and I’ll see you tomorrow. Love you.”

“Love you too,” she responded, happy to be able to say the words easily now.

***

Mac could see Veronica was antsy as they sat down at their usual table and ordered drinks. ‘What’s up? Missing him already?”

“No, no…maybe,” replied Veronica, uncharacteristically insecure. “It’s just odd. He said he was going to have to move up here for the next academic year and I was so excited. Until I remembered that I was probably going to be in New York at Columbia.”

“You’re not thinking of dumping law school for a boy, even Logan.” said Mac.

“No!” she replied quickly. “It’s just hitting home that I’ll have him for a few months and then I’ll hardly see him for three years. Long distance will blow.”

“So apply here. It’s not like Stanford or Berkeley are scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as law schools are concerned,” said Mac.

“But New York, Columbia. It’s my dream, remember,” replied Veronica.

Mac laughed, because for someone so good at reading other people, Veronica was not very astute with herself. “Veronica,” she started, “You have put off Columbia for two years. You’re not even sure you want to go to law school. I have never known why you applied only to law schools on the other side of the country when there are two top ten schools right here.”

‘You know why,” started Veronica.

Mac plunged ahead saying, “I know what you said, but you are smart and capable and yet it feels like you believe you have to prove yourself by moving away from all your friends and family, your support system. I’m just telling you that you don’t. Food for thought, hey. And speaking of food, want to share the vegetarian starter plate.”

Veronica looked at her silently, mouth agape, gobsmacked.

‘I’ll take that as a yes, because I am starving,” Mac looked at her assessingly, “So what time does he arrive tonight. Do we need to hurry dinner?”

Veronica recovered from Mac’s first truth bomb admirably, “He wanted to come, but I said no, because you know, dinner and getting ready for Wallace and all that.”

“Veronica, I am going to Alex’s after this. If Logan is willing to drive two hours for a booty call, I say go for it. Call him.”

For the second time in ten minutes, Veronica’s mouth dropped open.

“I’m just heading for the bathroom. Call him.” Mac said insistently.


	22. Twenty two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wallace arrives in San Francisco

Wallace landed at SFO mid afternoon. The airline had called him with one of those ‘if you can change your flight deals’ and as the senior coach had offered to cover his afternoon classes, he had jumped at the chance to head up from Neptune early. Mac had arranged for the building caretaker to give him the key for the door of the apartment yesterday, just in case they got delayed at work. He planned to head in, have a shower and head out for a look around, maybe grab a beer at one of the local bars and enjoy San Francisco.

Arriving at the apartment, he unlocked and nudged the door open. A voice called out, saying, “you’re home early.” A male voice. He pushed the door open to see a tall, well built brown haired man getting up from a laptop in front of the table to walk towards him. Not Alex, he knew straightaway as Mac’s boyfriend was a tall slightly shaggy haired blond, a little too reminiscent of a grown up version of Dick Casablancas in appearance but not, thank god, in personality. But thinking of Dick reminded him of who Dick had been sidekick to and his brain froze as he said “No, no, no,” in disbelief.

“Ah, Wallace, hi. You’re early,” said Logan awkwardly.

“What the hell is this, you were dead,” said Wallace.

“Not quite, long story,” replied Logan.

Wallace dropped his bag and advanced quickly on Logan, delivering a perfectly executed roundhouse punch to the jaw as he growled, “do you have any idea what she went through because of you?”

Logan had taken plenty of punches before, mostly in what he described as his mis-spent youth, but even so, Wallace’s punch hit like a brick, with its element of surprise and the forceful anger of righteous friendship. He stumbled back a step and spoke quickly, in case Wallace was preparing to follow up that punch with more, saying “wait, hold on, it wasn’t like that,”

“Yeah, well exactly what was it?” Wallace replied, anger permeating every syllable.

“I thought she had been told. I sent her a letter,” Logan started.

Wallace exploded, “a letter. You’re kidding me, right, a frickin’ letter.”

“Yeah, okay, I know it sounds stupid,” said Logan defensively, “but wait a minute, hey. I’ll tell you the whole thing and if you still want to hit me, I’ll give you a free shot.”

Wallace nodded, tight lipped, still angry and muttered, “okay.”

Logan said, “this is a long story, so why don’t we sit down,” and gestured to the table. They sat and he told Wallace the whole story. From his last days at Hearst, when Wallace had last seen him, drunk and out of control through to Europe, Gory Sorokin’s attempts on his life, the forced OD and rehab. He explained his name change and how he had sent a letter to Veronica and how his lawyer had told him she had blown him off to hide stealing her scholarship.

“Heck, Logan, that’s one hell of a story. You really never thought to look our girl up after you got out of rehab,” asked Wallace.

“In hindsight, I should have, but, it’s hard to explain, I just really believed she was done with me,” said Logan, his unspoken thought that he hadn’t believed that he could be worthy of her love. “I never would have left her believing I was dead.”

“And your sister had a funeral for you even though she didn’t know if you were actually dead. That’s cold, man,” he added.

“Well Trina always did have a flair for the melodramatic,” said Logan. “I guess she thought it might help get me declared dead early.”

“Does she know now, that you’re alive?” asked Wallace.

“No. I haven’t told her.” replied Logan. “I’ll make sure she knows before the seven year hearing, but I doubt she would be able to keep her mouth shut and the tabloids do pay well, so I was just delaying that until as late as possible. I currently pay her a stipend, in theory from the Foundation, but legally direct from me to host a fundraising event each year. It keeps her off my lawyer’s back.”

“What Foundation?” asked Wallace.

“Of course, I haven’t told you about that,” said Logan. “Look, it’s quite another story, so, do you still want to take that swing, or could I interest you in a beer instead?”

“A beer sounds good,” replied Wallace.

***

Veronica hurried home from work, knowing Logan was there, and wanting to make sure she was back before Wallace arrived in. Coding in through the door, she heard Logan’s voice and then male laughter and entered to the scene of her boyfriend and her bff doubled over with laughter, beers on the table in front of them. _Okay,_ she thought, _that’s good. Unexpected, but good._ Logan saw her first, but held back when Wallace jumped up to hug Veronica.

“You’re early, Papabear,” she said as he released her from the hug. “But it is so good see you.”

“You too, Supafly,” he replied, “but I think you forgot to mention something before I flew up here,” nodding towards Logan.

“Ah, well yeah, I had meant to talk to you about him when you got here. Wanted to do it in person, not on the phone, but you’re here now,” she said. She walked towards the table where Logan was standing and stretched up to brush her lips across his, “How much has he told you?”

Wallace watched this easy demonstration of affection and intimacy, realizing that they had not only reconnected, as Logan had said, but were already together again. He prayed to all that was holy that this was going work this time, and answered, “About Hearst and Sorokin and France and the rehab. About changing his name and why he didn’t get in touch. Stupid decision as far as I can see, but I can see his reasoning. And about Castaway, for which I am proud to know him.”

“And the rest,” she asked, more to Logan than to Wallace.

“That’s yours to tell,” replied Logan.

“None of it?” asked Veronica.

“No. As I said, yours to tell,” said Logan.

Wallace, who had been looking back and forth to the two of them, interrupted, “just tell me, alright.”

Veronica looked at him and said, “Give me a few minutes to get changed, and I wouldn’t mind one of those beers,” and headed into her bedroom.

When she had closed the door, Wallace turned to Logan and said, “So, you and V are giving it another go.”

“Yeah. I love her. Have since I was seventeen,” he answered.

“Just don’t hurt her again. It took a lot to pick her back up the last time. She ended up in the hospital up here,” warned Wallace.

Logan looked shocked, “I didn’t know. What happened?”

“She stopped sleeping, stopped eating, stopped going to class, stopped handing in assessments. Exhaustion caused by grief, they called it. They made her see a psych to get back into her classes. We thought she might come back to Neptune but Mac moved heaven and earth to get a scholarship to come up the following year to be with her,” said Wallace. “It all helped. Mac most of all, I think.”

Logan realized he had a lot more to be grateful to Veronica’s friends for than he had known, especially Mac, and told Wallace so, “I’m so grateful to you. I wish I had known. But I have no intention of hurting her again. I think we’ve both grown up a lot. And Mac’s already warned me.”

“Well just be aware, there will be a queue of people out to get you,” said Wallace.

“Okay. Look, before when we were together, we were a mess,” said Logan. “We both kept on sabotaging ourselves by expecting to be abandoned and then creating the situations to make the other leave. We knew exactly how to hurt each other and we did, time after time. This time, I think we’ve had more real conversations on what we want from each other in six days than we had in all the months we were together before.”’

“Alright. I get it. Even when you beat up Piz, you were doing it for her, because you thought he had taped her,” said Wallace.

“And I was wrong, then. I still want to protect her, but I think I’ve learned enough to at least look before I leap,” said Logan.

Their conversation ended as Veronica came back into the room and they settled down at the table to bring Wallace up to date with the Jake Kane situation, Duncan, the Castle and Jake’s implied threat to Logan. Mac arrived home part way through and joined them after giving Wallace a hug and changing out of her work clothes.

They headed out to dinner at a local Korean restaurant and managed to snag a quiet booth. The conversation turned to Wallace and Neptune.

“One of the fascinating things about being the underclassmen basketball coach is the gossip you hear from the sidelines. And the bored housewives of Neptune are all about Jake and Celeste Kane getting a divorce, and just how enormous that settlement is going to be,” said Wallace. 

The others gaped at him.

“What, I can know stuff,” he said. “The rumour mill says Celeste wants a seat on the board and has some sort of dirt on Jake which she is threatening him with. Jake, of course, doesn’t want her anywhere near his board. Sounds like that divorce is gonna be ugly.”

Veronica thought and then said, “could the ‘dirt’ Celeste has be the connection between the Castle and the Sorokins, especially if she has got information from her sister.?”

“Maybe,” replied Logan. 

“Would Jake really threaten and blackmail Veronica just because of Celeste’s threats?” asked Mac.

“Absolutely,” replied Logan. “Jake doesn’t think at all about anyone who isn’t important to him. He has no problem asking Veronica to sacrifice herself for Duncan, and he doesn’t even see it as a sacrifice for Veronica. He believes that she owes it to Duncan, because he shouldn’t have to suffer for what she did, even though Duncan made those choices and if they had given him even a little of the support he had asked for at the time he would never have left.”

“What?” said Wallace. “You are joking, aren’t you?”

“I wish,” said Logan. “Unfortunately I grew up as part of these people and I know how he thinks. Every relationship outside his immediate circle is transactional. What you can do for him or what you owe him. He thinks everyone else is the same.”

They were all silent on that for minute. Then Logan volunteered, “I spoke to Jack Maxwell this morning. He said Duncan had been in contact. He told him that he was hoping to return soon and wanted to bring Lilly and his girlfriend for a visit.”

“Wow,” said Veronica. “That’s quick. But it sounds good. The Maxwell’s genuinely care about him.”

“I wondered,” said Logan tentatively, wanting to see Veronica’s reaction, “if he thought that girlfriend might be you.”

“What,” said Veronica, “why on earth would you think that?”

Wallace, Mac and Logan all looked at her in disbelief.

“Veronica,” said Wallace, “he came in to Java the Hut every day to see you for months after junior year, even when you were still dating him,” indicating Logan.

“And that was the fakest looking breakup at school before he ran off with the baby,” said Mac. “He quite possibly thinks you’ve been waiting for him.”

“What,” exclaimed Veronica. “That is crazy. It’s been years.”

Logan was both grateful for Wallace and Mac’s clear vision as to Duncan’s character and bemused by Veronica’s blind spot. “He always acted like you were his. Even when he thought you were his sister, he didn’t think you should be with anyone else. I hope it’s long enough for that to be past, but I wouldn’t assume anything when it comes to Duncan and his vision of you.”

“Really,” said Veronica, “all of you think this way?”

They all nodded.

“Okay. Well I think you’re all wrong, but I’ll keep it in mind. And you,” she said, indicating Logan, “remember I love you, not him,” and lifted his hand to her lips.

A big smile spread across Logan’s face and Mac said, “six days, Echolls, six days. That’s all it’s taken you to turn her into this gushing pile of goo.”

“It’s mutual,” said Logan, making Mac and Wallace groan. “Oh, by the way, Jack also said he was not very impressed by Jake. He did say that if Jake had been a better hacker he could have taken care of this himself, got the information to the FBI without involving anyone else.”

“What,” said Mac. “Jake was a hacker.”

“Well not a good one,” said Logan. “Jack said that Jake was good at business but he was the good hacker. I don’t know if he does it anymore. He and his wife Annie run a surf product business down in Monterey now.”

“He’s a hacker,” asked Mac

“Yeah,” replied Logan. “He said they all were, back at college.”

“There were a lot of hackers at Stanford in the 80’s. Some of them are almost legendary in my world. I wonder if Jack is one of them,” mused Mac.

“No idea,” replied Logan. “But come down to Monterey one weekend and you can ask him yourself.”

“So what next,” asked Mac.

“We wait,” said Veronica. “I have to tell Jake something tomorrow, but I have no intention of confessing anything to the FBI on Jake’s say so. Especially when it doesn’t look like it would even be needed. I’m not interested in being the Kane’s sacrificial lamb.”

“What about the Sorokin’s and the connections we have found?” asked Logan. 

“I intend to hand them over, but for your safety, not for Jake’s convenience,” said Veronica, “and at a time suitable to us.”

“Okay,” said Mac. “That sounds like a plan.

***

Dinner with Wallace, Mac and Veronica was different to that with Mac and Alex a few days earlier, thought Logan. That had been good, but he was a little the outsider. Tonight had been different. They all had known each other in the formative years of high school and Hearst and he realized he had formed at least a kind of friendship with both Wallace and Mac separate to his relationship with Veronica, and with a few years and 500 miles distance from the hothouse that was Neptune, it was easier and simpler.

In Veronica’s room that night, Logan was acutely aware of Wallace in the lounge beyond. He’d never given a rat’s ass if anyone could hear them when he had lived at the Grand, but Wallace was Veronica’s friend and he didn’t want to jeopardise the fledgling friendship he had established tonight because of morning after awkwardness. “How good is the soundproofing,” he asked as he was undressing. She looked at him confused, until the light suddenly dawned upon her and she flushed, knowing who was the loudest of the pair of them. “Not very good,” she responded sheepishly, “at least you can mostly hear anything loud from the next room.”

“So, I guess that means not tonight? I mean you don’t want any embarrassing conversations with Wallace in the morning,” said Logan.

 _Damn him for being considerate_ , thought Veronica. _Especially when I’m horny_ , but saying “you’re probably right,” before heading into the bathroom.

She had been in the shower for a couple of minutes when he stepped in behind her, the warmth of his skin enveloping her more than the warm spray. His head dipped and his mouth found the spot on her neck that made her heart rate spike and heat pool below her belly. His big hands skimmed down her sides from the sides of her breasts to her hips and he nibbled and gently sucked the soft flesh on her neck, careful not to leave a mark, because he was, after all, an adult and she had to work tomorrow.

She put one hand on the wall to brace herself and lifted the other up to stroke his hair. “I guess this can work,” she said huskily. One of his hands skated back up her body to her breasts as he moved in close to her and she could feel his erection against her back. She moaned softly as his fingers brushed over her already aroused nipple. She reached out, and squeezing a little shower gel from the bottle in the shower, ran her hand over his at her breasts, down to her belly, down, creating a slippery sensual trail which he followed to tease the top of the curls below.

Wanting to see him, to kiss and touch him, she tried to twist herself around, but he held her there against him, crowding her a little more against the shower wall tiles, as he continued his exploration of her body, touching everywhere. She managed to twist her head around, to meet his mouth with a searing kiss. She got one of her hands in between them and stroked him firmly, causing him to groan this time, deep and guttural. He thrust up into her hand, almost involuntarily, and slid his hand between her legs, two fingers dipping then plunging in while his thumb found her clit, stroking it in time with her strokes until they were both desperate with need and arousal.

Needing to be inside her, Logan started to lift her, but her skin was slick and slippery from the water and the shower gel and he couldn’t get a grip. Muttering, “you’re too short,” he backed out, grabbed a towel and wrapped her in it before lifting her to the edge of the counter next to the sink. “Better,” he said as he positioned himself and thrusted hard into her, filling her as he groaned at the sensation of her warm and wet accepting him in.

She leaned back, hands on the counter behind her, watching his face as he stroked in and out. His hands, meanwhile were roaming over her body, touching, teasing her breasts, the curve of her waist, her clit. He ran one hand down her leg, then grasping her ankle, lifted that leg to rest on his shoulder. The change of angle had him thrusting deeper into her and she gasped as he seated himself fully inside and slowed down such that she felt every inch of him as he moved within her. His fingers moved back to her clit and started to stroke in counterpoint to his thrusts. The relentless stimulation made her pant and moan and she could feel the orgasm building deep within. Her leg slipped off his shoulder as she reached forward to grab his face, to join her lips to his as with his hand on her clit captured between them she came hard, growling his name into his mouth, as she clenched around him. Feeling her orgasm overtake her, he quickened his stroke and pounded into her, mouth on mouth until, unwilling to, unable to hold on any longer he came.


	23. Twenty three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan and Veronica have a pointed discussion with Jake Kane and Logan invites Wallace and Mac to Monterey.
> 
> Duncan returns to the States with Lilly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to Aurora2020 for beta'ing this and helping to whip it into shape.
> 
> This is the penultimate chapter, so happy reading :)
> 
> Promptober Prompt: Penalty

Friday

Veronica awoke to the insistent buzz that meant her phone was ringing. Glancing over, she saw it was six thirty am and James’ name was flashing on the display. Reaching over Logan’s chest, she retrieved it from the nightstand and, still rather drowsy, said “Hello, James?”

“Veronica, sorry to call you so early, but I’ve just had a call from my contact in Virginia to tell me the Kane case has been all wrapped up,” said James rapidly. Veronica sat up abruptly, phone in one hand, covers clutched to her bare chest with the other. She hit the speakerphone function on the phone.

James continued, “Duncan Kane arrived in Washington this morning and appeared before a judge in special sitting. He pleaded guilty to using a false passport for himself and his daughter and received a financial penalty. He was also legally recognized as the father of Faith Manning, whose name was legally changed to Lillian Kane and was granted custody of same.

Veronica was stunned. “No charges were brought with respect to kidnapping?”

“No,” replied James. The Bureau decided that given the circumstances there was little value in continuing with the case against Mr Kane and that any subsequent publicity would be negative for the Bureau.

“The circumstances?” queried Veronica.

James replied, “Yes. Apparently the Kane’s attorneys successfully argued that Mr Kane was the father of the child as proven through DNA testing; that the mother of the child was deceased; that Mr Kane believed the child was in imminent danger from the custodial grandparents; that Mr Kane knew that the authorities were aware of but not acting upon that information; and finally that Mr Kane’s beliefs were warranted because the child’s maternal grandparents have since been convicted of child abuse charges. The FBI decided they would be made to look foolish if they tried for an indictment.”

“And me?” she asked.

“There is no evidence. Mr Kane has said nothing about any accomplices. My source indicated that they are closing the file,” said James. “I thought you should know all this now as Mr Kane Senior was expecting an answer from you today.”

“That is,” she paused, “Unexpected and sooner than I would have thought. Thank you. That is extremely valuable information.”

“I’ll see you later in the office, Veronica,” said James. “Goodbye,” and he hung up.

“Did you catch that,” Veronica asked Logan.

“Yeah. So it’s over, just like that?” responded Logan.

“Apparently,” she responded.

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Logan. “Jake must have known the deal was imminent, so why did he come up here to try to blackmail you?”

“Well, either he is desperate to keep Celeste out of his business or he really wanted the Sorokins’ out,” said Veronica.

“Or both,” said Logan.

“Or both,” agreed Veronica.

An hour later Veronica, Mac and Wallace were at the breakfast table, discussing plans as Logan leaned against the kitchen counter, coffee in hand.

“So Duncan’s already free and in the States,” asked Wallace.

“Sounds like it,” said Logan.

“So what are you going to do about Jake?” asked Mac. “Because even if it helps him, I would still kind of like to see the Sorokin family gone.”

“Definitely a bit later,” said Veronica, “But for now with Jake, I’m just going to tell him that I know Duncan’s already free and warn him away from revealing Logan’s identity.”

“Will you tell him you have information on the Sorokins?” asked Wallace.

“Probably not, but it will depend on what he says,” said Veronica. “Our main aim is to keep Logan safe from the Sorokins and get them off his back permanently, if possible.”

“Amen to that,” responded Mac.

“So is Logan going with you to see Jake?” asked Wallace.

“Planning on it,” replied Logan. “It’s my life he threatened, so I want to be there. And I finished my English paper yesterday, so I’m all good to go.”

***

The meeting with Jake was anti-climactic. Meeting at his hotel, Veronica spoke without preamble, “So Duncan is already here, and the case has been closed.”

Jake barely reacted except for the slightest movement of the hand. “Yes, things moved much more rapidly than expected and Agent Morris was forced to back off.”

Veronica thought _‘no wonder he does so well in business’_. He had clearly been made aware that she had been informed of Duncan’s return and if her bullshit meter hadn’t been on high alert she would have almost believed his smooth lie that it had been unexpected.

“Are you going to inform the Sorokins about me?” Logan was deliberately blunt. He wanted no part in Jake’s little game.

“I really don’t know what you mean, Logan,” said Jake, with complete composure. “It is good to see you again after so long and I hope that you and Duncan get a chance to meet up again soon, Veronica as well. It would be good for Duncan to reacquaint himself with old friends who have made that transition from high school to college and life so successfully.”

Reading between the lines, Logan appreciated that Jake appeared not to be planning on selling him out to the Russians. “That could certainly be arranged.”

It was time, Veronica thought, to start putting the cards out to see if she could rattle him. “I would assume Celeste has also been eager for Duncan’s return? I am sure she would not want any harm to come to any of his friends so soon after his return.” Jake’s eyes widened momentarily at the statement before he quickly schooled his features back to bland, and Veronica thought, _finally something you weren’t prepared for._

“I’m sure Celeste only wants the best for Duncan,” replied Jake.

“I trust you can remind her, Jake. You wouldn’t want any surprises, they can be bad for business,” said Veronica.

Clarence Wiedman, the fourth person in the room, fixed Jake with a stare, and nodded. Jake spoke up, “Clarence here is telling me to stop trying to hold all the cards and say what needs to be said. You want Logan here to be safe from the Sorokins and I want to be free of them without it blowing back on me. We have a common enemy.”

Clarence spoke up, “Logan will never truly be safe while Gory is free. At the moment he thinks you are dead but if you resurface, he will come for you again, and the more people who know you are alive, the more chance your identity will come out.”

Veronica and Logan had already come to this conclusion, but didn’t want to let Jake off the hook too quickly. “It can’t be done too soon, or they will connect it with Duncan’s return. That was a mistake, Jake,” said Logan.

“I was hoping your ‘expert’ who decrypted the disk may be able to help you deliver it to the FBI without it being able to be traced back.” said Jake, primarily to Veronica.

“Surely with your connections, Jake, you could find one of your own. Your friend, Jack Maxwell could, but you’re not willing to risk your own friends, just mine. If I had known what business this was, I would never have risked anyone in the first place and I won’t be doing it again. But I will find another way to get the information to the Feds at an appropriate time that protects us best,” replied Veronica. “But rest assured I have no intention of doing anything that may risk Duncan or Lilly.”

“There is, ah, a time pressure factor here as well,” said Jake.

“Not from our perspective, Jake,” said Logan. “If you want to get Celeste off your back, try offering her an arrangement that will upskill Duncan to the Board quickly. He always was her golden child.”

“She did love Lilly, Logan,” said Jake. “Even if she didn’t show it very well.”

“I’m sure she loved her,” said Veronica, wanting to spare Logan. “I just don’t think she liked her very much.”

After they left, Logan and Veronica were alone in the elevator on their way down. “You suggested Duncan for the Kane Software Board? Seriously Logan, he had the business acumen of a grumpy toddler back in high school,” said Veronica.

“Well I’ll be divesting shares as soon as he gets appointed, but it might get Celeste off Jake’s back,” replied Logan.

“Why not before?” asked Veronica.

“That would be insider trading,” smirked back Logan. “I was thinking of asking Wallace, Mac and Alex to come with us down to Monterey this weekend. The house has plenty of room and I just thought it could be fun, but I didn’t want to say anything without running it by you.”

Veronica considered, “That could work. Wallace is supposed to be finished with the graduate program tour, and we have plans to meet up with a few college friends Wallace knows at Harry’s Bar tonight, but other than that, Mac and I had just planned to hang out as much as possible, depending on what Wallace wanted to do. We could head down tomorrow morning, drop Wallace at SFO on the way back on Sunday. I think his flight is late afternoon. We could ask this evening, before we head out.”

“Or, we could head down tonight after Harry’s, get the place ready and Mac, Alex and Wallace could come tomorrow morning,” suggested Logan.

Veronica smiled, “Trying to get me alone, Echolls?”

“The thought had crossed my mind. Three bedrooms, no common walls, good soundproofing,” he replied.

“I’ll consider it,” said Veronica.

They drove to Monterey that night. Wallace travelled down with them leaving Mac and Alex in the apartment to travel down in the morning.

***

Veronica came downstairs Saturday morning to find Logan making coffee and Wallace putting plates on the table where a basket of pastries sat. They were good naturedly arguing about basketball and she caught Logan saying something about the Warriors as Wallace had an expression of mock disgust. She headed over and kissed Logan and took the coffee he offered her before sitting at the table. Logan had left her in bed that morning to go surfing, but it looked like Wallace had joined him down on the beach and the two of them had returned bearing breakfast food.

“I didn’t know you knew anything about basketball,” said Veronica, looking at Logan.

“He doesn’t,” said Wallace, making Veronica laugh and Logan faked looking offended. 

“Mac texted that she and Alex should be here in about an hour,” said Wallace, as he grabbed a pain au chocolat and sat down. “I was thinking that maybe you should tell Alex. I don’t think Mac should be in the position of hiding information from him. They are pretty serious and he’s pretty smart. He may well know that she is keeping secrets from him.”

Logan said, “How long have they been together?”

“Maybe a year and a half. They started going out a few months after college finished,” said Veronica. But we all met Junior year, when Mac moved up here.

“I think she is thinking about moving in with him. Or for him to move in to the apartment,” said Wallace.

“She hasn’t said anything,” said Veronica, “but come to think of it, it makes sense. They spend most nights together at our apartment or his place.” 

“Do you trust him?” asked Logan.

“Mac does,” said Veronica. “And he’s a good guy.”

“She told him about Cassidy,” said Wallace.

“Really?” said Veronica.

“She didn’t want to keep secrets from her past from him. That’s how I knew she got serious,” replied Wallace.

“I think it would be okay. Mac’s a good judge of character and it will be easier on her if we don’t have to worry about slipping up with my name,” said Logan.

“Do you think you would change it back, if Gory wasn’t a threat?” asked Wallace.

Logan thought before he replied, “A week ago, not a chance. I still like that I have shed Echolls, and I think I would be happy to stay rid of that. I’ve gotten used to William, Will, but it has never sat as easily. It’s meeting up with all of you again that has me missing being Logan. So maybe Logan Lester?”

“I like it,” said Veronica.

“Man, you can call yourself anything and your girl here,” Wallace indicated Veronica, “will like it, but to me, well, there is a part of me that will always think of you as Logan Echolls. So I’ll tell you what I tell some of my kids at school who come from less than perfect families with difficult names. You can change it, become someone different and that’s cool, but if you want to keep it, remember that your name doesn’t make you, because only you can make your name.”

***

Mac and Alex had been in Monterey for about an hour, and they were all about to go swimming in the pool, when Jack Maxwell knocked at the door. Logan waved everyone out to the pool deck before answering. Mac, Alex and Wallace headed out, but Veronica went with him to the door.

After the bare minimum of pleasantries, Jack cut to the chase. “Duncan is coming down tomorrow around lunchtime and he is bringing Lilly with him to meet us. We would love to have you come over to join us for lunch. Give him a chance to meet with some of his old friends.”

“I’m sure Duncan would like to have you to himself and we have guests this weekend,” said Logan.

“Down from where?” asked Veronica. “Didn’t he go to Neptune to be with Jake?”

“He is staying with Celeste up in Napa,” said Jack. “And Duncan is staying overnight with us tomorrow so we will have plenty of time to catch up with him after lunch. We really would like you to come and your friends are welcome to come too, but I will understand if you feel you can’t.”

Veronica looked at Logan, “Duncan does at least know Mac and Wallace, Wallace particularly, so we could, if you are okay with it?”

“Are you sure it’s a good idea?” asked Logan.

“Not completely, but I’m sure it will be fine,” replied Veronica.

“So, come over around one tomorrow,” said Jack.

After Jack had left, Logan turned to Veronica and said, “You seemed eager to see Duncan.”

“No, I’m eager to see Lilly, and to be honest I prefer the idea of a few extra people being around when Duncan sees us together. I noticed Jack didn’t mention the girlfriend today and I have been thinking about what you and Mac and Wallace said earlier. Even though I’m still not sure I agree with you, I can’t deny that there might be something to it, especially as you all think that way,” explained Veronica. “So, I’m taking advantage of the safety in numbers available.”

Logan stared at her and she squirmed a little. “What?” she said.

“Thank you,” he said, “for thinking about it and even though you are not sure of it yourself, for seeing the possibility we see,” he replied and enfolded her in his arms.

They stood there, wrapped together for a long moment. Then Veronica said, “We probably should check if the others actually want to come to your neighbors for a BBQ.”

“For you Veronica,” he said, “They’ll do just about anything.”

***

They told Alex of Logan’s real identity late that afternoon having drinks on the deck watching the sunset, and while surprised, he confirmed that he had suspected something wasn’t quite right. “You’re just not that great at keeping secrets, Mac,” he said, “Which is fine by me. I was just a little worried that I’d done something wrong.” He turned to Logan, “So do I keep calling you Will or do I call you Logan?”

“We have to keep up Will in public, so I’m fine with Will. These guys tend to not address me by name much in public,” he said, indicating the other three. 

They headed into a restaurant near the Marina for dinner. Veronica was wearing a short little slip dress to dinner and Logan couldn’t keep his eyes off her. The bodice dipped just enough in the front for him to imagine glimpses of silk and lace underthings. 

“You’re tormenting him,” said Mac as the boys had headed off to get drinks when they moved on to a bustling bar after dinner. 

“Trying to,” she agreed. “I never really did this with him before. I didn’t have the confidence. This time I want some things to be different. I want to come into this relationship on a more equal footing this time.”

Mac looked at her in askance. “Logan was pretty experienced, ah sexually, when you were going out before. Sex god, remember? I know you’ve dated a bit and had one longer relationship, but I wouldn’t say you are going to be even close to him, experience-wise.”

“Oh I know that,” said Veronica. “But it’s more of an attitude, you know. Back then I was still a little traumatized and embarrassed about everything sexual, and I was pretty intimidated by his experience. I don’t feel that way now. I know that I can turn him inside out just as much as he can to me and I have no reason to be intimidated. And I want to enjoy this. Have the fun, experimental sex people our age have, and tormenting him is part of the pleasure.”

“Well I guess he doesn’t mind,” said Mac watching as Logan made a beeline for them coming back from the bar, eyes laser focused on Veronica.

“No, he really doesn’t, she laughed.

***

When they returned to the house, Logan said goodnight to the others and hustled Veronica up to their bedroom with almost indecent haste. When he lifted the slip dress over her head and off, he saw her clad in the scanty black silk and lace lingerie he had bought her in the hope that she might model it for him. His mouth went dry and the erection he had been ruthlessly suppressing all night hardened instantly, straining the zipper on his pants. “Fuck Veronica, are you trying to kill me?” he ground out.

“No,” she replied saucily, newfound confidence abounding. “I’m trying to fuck you.”

He lifted her up, spun her around and lightly tossed her on the bed and without taking his eyes off her, stripped off his own shirt, pants and boxers. Naked, he crawled up over her, kissing her legs, her belly, her breasts before covering her mouth with his own and kissing her urgently. 

Her hands went to the back of his head and they kissed hungrily. She could feel his hard erection between them and pushed her hips upwards, eager to feel it against her body. Her legs lifted to wrap around his waist and she tried to pull him down onto her body. His lips trailed down to kiss her neck and she moaned as he found the spot that drove her wild. While he worshipped her neck, she ran one hand down feeling the muscles in his back.

He eased his way down her body, reaching underneath her to undo and remove her bra before kissing her breasts. “You are gorgeous,” he said. “Fucking gorgeous.” He kissed his way down to the lace edging on her low cut panties and hooked a finger in each side and drew them down. Now naked, he parted her legs, settling between them and spread her folds. His mouth closed on her clit and two fingers tested her. Finding her drenched, he slid them into her easily, reaching her g-spot and making her groan. He pumped his fingers in and out while licking her clit until she was writhing beneath him on the bed. She bit down on her lip, moaning his name, “Logan.” He kept going, single-mindedly pushing her to climax. Before she could come down from the orgasm, he rolled her over onto her stomach and stuffed a pillow under her hips. He palmed her ass, running one hand down her leg to bend her knee to waist level and positioned himself behind her. 

He rolled his hips and thrust into her while she gasped as her body welcomed the intrusion. She clenched around him and he groaned “Veronica.” As he thrusted from this position, he hit her g-spot with every stroke. 

She cried out “faster” and he obeyed, pumping faster and harder, holding his body above hers. She turned her head and he kissed her, smothering her cries as she squeezed her eyes shut and came again. He kept thrusting, slower now, steadier, keeping the crests of her orgasm going, extending it, delighting in the way her body spasmed around his cock. 

Once the orgasm slowly waned, he slid a hand under her to brush across her clit and murmured “one more time.” He increased the tempo of his thrusts and continued to rub her clit shooting her rapidly back to climax when he finally allowed himself to come, dripping in sweat but completely and utterly replete.

***

Sunday Lunch

Logan, Veronica, Mac, Alex and Wallace headed out the beach path to join Duncan and the Maxwell’s for lunch. Veronica nudged Logan, saying, “We were doing this last weekend too, remember.”

Logan smiled, saying, “It’s been one hell of a week, hasn’t it?” before pushing the security buzzer on the beach gate at the Maxwell’s home. 

Annie came down to open the gate and usher them in. “Duncan got here about a half hour ago. He’s got a friend with him, as well as, Lilly, but his friend had to take a call about something and will head in to join us when he’s finished. Little Lilly is such a cute little thing,” she gushed. “She looks so much like her Aunt Lilly did at that age.”

Logan and Veronica looked at each other and Logan said, “Well hopefully she has more of her mother’s temperament.” 

They arrived at the gazebo in the garden to see Duncan, a little older but much the same, talking with Jack while a little blonde girl ran excitedly around the garden. Duncan turned to see the newcomers and an expression of delight crossed his face at the sight of Logan and Veronica. He hurried toward them and engulfed first Logan and then Veronica in a hug. “It is so good to see you, both of you. I couldn’t believe it when Jack told me you were coming today. It feels like a lifetime since I saw you.”

Logan was taken aback. He had expected some reaction from Duncan about Veronica. But it was almost as if he didn’t care. _Maybe Veronica was right_ _? Maybe Duncan Kane had a new life and had finally moved on from his obsession with Veronica_ , he thought. 

Mindful of the others with them, Veronica said to Duncan, “Do you remember Mac and Wallace from Neptune High?”

He proffered a hand to Wallace, “Ah, I remember Wallace. You were pretty good friends with Veronica in senior year, and I kind of remember Mac?” he sounded unsure.

“That’s ok Duncan, I didn’t really know you either. We didn’t exactly run in the same crowd,” said Mac. “This is my boyfriend Alex. He didn’t go to Neptune. We are all staying with Logan this weekend.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Alex,” and reached out to shake hands. 

Lilly ran up to Duncan, saying “Dad, who are all these people?” A smile lit up Duncan’s face and Veronica thought that was the most genuine smile of happiness she had seen on Duncan’s face since before Lilly’s death.

His voice softened as he addressed his daughter, “Hey Lilly-pilly, these are some of daddy’s American friends.” He indicated Logan and Veronica, “These are your Uncle Logan and Auntie Veronica.” He squatted down to her height and whispered something in her ear. 

Looking up at them, Lilly looked closely at Logan and Veronica. “You’re from the photograph, with Dad and my Aunt Lilly, and Dad said you knew my mom.”

“We did,” said Veronica. “She was a really lovely person.”

“Dad says I look like her, but I think I look more like my Aunt Lilly, from the photograph. She had on a gold dress, but you had the really pretty pink dress and I liked that one the most,” she said precociously.

“Thank you. I liked that dress too,” replied Veronica.

“You do look quite a bit like your Aunt Lilly,” said Logan, “You have eyes just like hers, but your mouth looks more like your mom’s.”

“Grandmamma says my eyes are full of mischief, just like Aunt Lilly’s,” said Lilly, a little sad.

 _How to respond to that_ , thought Veronica, but seeing consternation in her eyes, Wallace jumped in, “Well, what your Grandmamma didn’t say is that girls with mischievous, twinkly eyes like you and your Aunt Lilly make the best friends. Veronica here was Lilly’s best friend.”

Grateful to him for the save, Veronica added, “I was and she was the best friend I could have.”

“I don’t have friends here. I had to leave my friend Carli behind,” said Lilly.

“That must make you feel sad, Lilly,” said Wallace. “But when you start school here there will be a whole lot of new friends that you can make. We all met when we were at school.” All the adults looked at Wallace with stunned surprise.

Lilly digested that for a minute. “That sounds better.” She turned around to Duncan, “Dad, can I go swimming now, please?” She drew that last ‘please’ out like a plaintive whine.

“After lunch, sweetheart. Why don’t you go help Aunt Annie in the kitchen?” replied Duncan.

As soon as she had skipped off, Mac asked Wallace, “When did you get so good with little kids?”

“What?” exclaimed Wallace. “I’m a teacher. Girls are all moods and friendship dramas. Even the little ones.”

Logan turned to Duncan and asked almost desperately, casually, “Jack mentioned that you said you had a girlfriend. She’s not here today?”

“No. Anastasia hasn’t come to the States. To be honest, I think she is intimidated by Celeste and wants to wait till I have a place of my own,” replied Duncan.

“Celeste can be pretty intimidating,” agreed Veronica, relaxing a little as he spoke of his girlfriend.

“Yeah, and I’m not sure she would fit in here, so we’ll have to wait and see” finished Duncan and that anxiety ratcheted back up.

Jack came over, “Why don’t you head over to the table and I’ll get you all some drinks.”

Alex said, “I’ll give you a hand carrying them if you like,” and headed off with Jack.

The five Neptune High alumni looked at each other and headed for the table. Duncan stopped and said, “I just need to find out what’s holding up Gory. He was just taking a call when we arrived and stayed outside.” He hurried off into the house.

Mac looked wide-eyed, “Did he just say Gory or am I being paranoid and it was Corey or something similar?”

Wallace said, “It sounded like Gory to me. I’ve got a bad feeling here.”

“Me too,” said Veronica. “I’m going to call James.” She reached for her phone and noting it had been set to ‘do not disturb’ since the previous night, she flicked it on. Instantly a wave of messages and missed call notifications from James came in, with the phone buzzing frantically. 

She opened the last text message and read, ‘Gory Sorokin is with Duncan Kane and they are headed for Monterey. Stay away from him and let me know where you are stat!’

She spoke abruptly, “It’s him. We have to get Logan out of here,” and she grabbed his arm and started to move towards the beach gate.

“I think you’re too late,” said a voice behind her.

They all spun around to see Gory Sorokin behind them with a gun in his right hand pointing at Logan and his left arm holding a squirming Lilly Kane.

***

Sunday Morning

When Clarence Wiedman got off the phone after speaking with Celeste Kane he was rattled. More rattled than he could remember having been, and that included serving on the ground in Afghanistan and the first Gulf War.

Duncan had flown from Washington to San Francisco before heading up to Napa to spend time with Celeste. But Duncan had brought along a friend. He had met Gory Sorokin originally in the year after Lilly died, when Gory had been visiting Jake in Neptune. By Clarence’s reckoning, it must have been not long after Gory had been inducted into the Castle.

Gory had apparently found out where Duncan had holed up awaiting his return to the States and had renewed his acquaintance and befriended him. Duncan, after so many years on the run, had been grateful to see someone, anyone he remembered from home and Gory’s smooth lies had been lapped up like a kitten with a saucer of milk.

Celeste, to her credit, had known who Gory was when he turned up and she managed to keep her fear and dismay from showing on her face. All those years of social training had given her a poker face a professional gambler would be proud of. She could not figure out what Gory’s motivation for befriending Duncan was, but she knew the danger he represented to her son and grand-daughter. When Duncan had announced he was heading down to Monterey to take Lilly to meet his Godfather Jack, Gory had invited himself along. As soon as the coast was clear, Celeste had called Clarence to report this disturbing new development.

Clarence thought first about informing Jake, but made a decision. A moral choice. He contacted James Hudson, ex-FBI colleague, former friend and Veronica’s boss, to let him know of the danger that had reared its head. Then he told Jake.

Clarence picked up James on the way to Monterey. They knew that they were more than an hour behind Duncan and Gory, but Clarence and James were hoping they could make up some ground on the pair. James kept trying to reach Veronica by phone, but she didn’t pick up which left him leaving more and more frantic voicemail messages.

Clarence had Jack Maxwell’s address from Celeste, and James was frantically trying to track Veronica’s phone. “It’s showing up at Logan’s address in Monterey. She must have it switched it to silent or not have it on her,” he said. Call Jake and get him to call Gory, make up some reason to distract him somehow. Try to buy us some time.”

“Logan lives in Monterey?” asked Clarence.

“Yes.” He reeled off the address.

Clarence swore, “That’s right next door to Jack Maxwell’s place. Duncan is leading Gory straight to him.”

Clarence called Jake and after rapidly explaining the situation to Jake, Clarence floored it on the road to Monterey. As they closed on the Monterey city limits, James noticed the dot marking Veronica’s phone had moved and was now at the Maxwell’s address. “They’re at the Maxwell’s,” said James. “Hurry.”

They pulled up outside the Maxwell’s coastal house and headed towards the house, both men holding guns. Clarence checked out the car in the driveway of the house and saw a small child’s booster seat in the back, and an empty box of ammunition on the front passenger seat. “Duncan and Lilly are here,” he reported, “and I think Gory as well. And someone is armed.”

The two of them entered the house and headed towards where they could hear some noise. As the voices became audible they came across Annie hiding in the kitchen who almost screamed when she saw them until she recognized Clarence as Jake Kane’s security expert and hissed, “Out back, they’ve got guns. I’ve called the police.”

Moving with the stealth borne of years of similar training and experience, James and Clarence kept out of sight as they crept out the back of the house and surveyed the scene in front of them. Duncan Kane was standing there, shouting at Gory Sorokin to put his daughter down while Gory had his gun trained on Logan.

“Shut the fuck up,” shouted Gory, “and tell this little bitch to shut up and stop fighting,” referring to Lilly who was by now trying to pummel him with her little fists.

“Put her down,” screamed Duncan.

I don’t care about her, all I want is him,” said Gory, indicating Logan. “He is going to die.”

Veronica’s voice cut through. “There’s too many witnesses here, Gory. You won’t get away with it.”

Gory laughed and answered chillingly, “Witnesses are rarely a problem to my family. In fact, we rarely end up with any witnesses at all.”

Logan cut in, “You want me, Gory. No one else here has to get hurt. I’ll go with you, and you can let Lilly go, let all these people go.”

“Jake Kane thinks he’s so smart, hiding you from me. But I knew as soon as he came back,” nodding at Duncan, “that you would resurface and I was patient. None of you deserve to live, especially not the little blonde bitch next to you who started it all.”

Veronica saw from the corner of her eye a movement and knew that there was someone on the far side of the gazebo. She could also see that Duncan was growing frantic with worry for his daughter and was pulling something from the small of his back. She shouted “Duncan, no!”

Gory glanced over at Duncan and seeing a gun in his hand, he dropped Lilly to the ground and swung around to fire at Duncan.

Logan saw the gun in Gory’s hand swing towards Duncan and lunged out towards his childhood friend, knocking him off balance.

Three shots rang out in the afternoon sunshine. One single shot followed by two rapid shots in succession, a double tap. Duncan Kane fell to the ground clutching his shoulder. Gory Sorokin fell to the ground, blood pooling around his head.

A child’s scream pierced the air as young Lilly Kane ran towards her father screaming “Daddy, daddy, daddy!” while sirens wailed in the background.


	24. Twenty four

After Duncan and Gory had been shot, it felt as if a thousand law enforcement officials and emergency workers had descended upon them at once. First the local police, then EMT’s, followed by the FBI.

Hours later, Veronica, Logan, Wallace, Mac and Alex were back at Logan’s house. 

Duncan was in the hospital, the wound in his shoulder nowhere near as serious as it could have been thanks to Logan pushing him out of the way.

Gory was in a body bag, being transported to the morgue.

***

Veronica and Wallace were in the kitchen making coffee when Logan got off the phone. “That was Jack. The police have finished with them but the house is a crime scene, so I suggested they stay here until they can go back. It will probably take a few days.”

“Do they still have Lilly with them?”

“Yeah. But not for too much longer. Once Celeste was assured that Duncan’s wound was not life-threatening, she let Jack know she would be by soon to collect Lilly.”

“So Duncan will be okay?” asked Wallace.

“Jack said that Celeste had told him that he had a relatively minor wound but they were keeping him in hospital overnight.”

“He’s okay thanks to you,” said Veronica.

“You can’t know that,” protested Logan.

“I know what I saw. And if you hadn’t pushed him at that moment, the bullet would have hit his chest.”

“You’re lucky you weren’t hit, Logan,” commented Wallace.

“I didn’t really think. Just saw the threat and reacted, really.”

“Not everyone would. I don’t know if I would,” replied Wallace.

“You would, Wallace. You tackled Lucky in high school when he was waving that gun around,” said Veronica.

“The unloaded gun,” pointed out Wallace.

“But nobody knew that,” retorted Veronica.

“Well, anyway,” Logan interrupted, then addressed Wallace, “Did you manage to get your flight changed?” 

“Yeah, I’m on a 9am flight tomorrow. I also called Coach Banner and he can cover for my classes. News of Duncan Kane getting shot has reached Neptune already.”

“You are welcome to stay here overnight with us,” said Logan, not noticing that Veronica pinked a bit at his use of ‘us’. “Or Mac and Alex are heading back up to the apartment so you can head out with them.”

Veronica added in, “I do have to head out tomorrow morning so it will be no trouble to go via the airport.”

They were interrupted by the security system announcing visitors at the beach gate. Logan said, “That will be Jack and Annie. I’ll go let them in.”

Wallace turned to Veronica, “If you’re headed out tomorrow morning and it’s no trouble, I’ll stay here tonight.”

“Sure, no problem Papabear,” she replied.

“I noticed your boy there getting very free with the ‘us’. You moving in with him already?”

Veronica squirmed a little, “Um, it hasn’t been discussed.”

“You know it will, Supafly. So are you thinking about it?”

“It’s not really practical at the moment. This is too far away for a daily commute. And his job is here. And then there’s Columbia,” she said. “It’s a lot to work out.”

“But you love him?”

“Yes, I do.”

“You told him this time?”

“Yes, I have.”

“Then you’ll make it work, somehow. My advice, for what it is worth, is to actually speak to the man. He’s got his head screwed on right these days.”

***

Jack and Annie joined them in the kitchen, looking considerably less upset than the last time they had seen them.

“Lilly’s not with you?” asked Veronica.

“No,” replied Annie. “Celeste picked her up before we came over.”

“Was she okay?” asked Logan.

“She’s still pretty shaken up from seeing Duncan get shot, but Celeste promised that they were taking her to visit her dad and that he was just fine,” said Jack. “She seemed pretty calm with Celeste, though. I get the impression that Celeste has spent quite a bit of time with them wherever they have been in the last year.”

“Do you know what happened with Clarence and James?” asked Veronica.

“Not really,” replied Jack. They were still interviewing them separately from us when we left, but it was the FBI doing the interviewing. The local police looked a bit out of sorts, but the FBI didn’t really give them a choice. Annie here was brilliant. She not only hid and called the police when she saw Gory enter the house and grab Lilly, but she also turned on the external security monitors. The entire thing was captured on video, so it will be pretty cut and dry. Gory was shot after went to shoot Duncan, after he had been threatening you and Lilly.”

Mac and Alex joined them as Jack completed his story. “That’s great, Annie,” said Mac. “And it’s great for Logan. Gory won’t be a threat now.”

“Do you think Gory’s family might come after you?” asked Annie. 

“I don’t know,” said Logan. “But I think not. I didn’t kill Gory, after all. It was James and Clarence who fired the shots.”

“The FBI agents were warning the local police to keep all our names out of the reports. James and Clarence, in particular, but all of us in general as well. Russian organized crime syndicates are serious business,” said Veronica.

“How did the Feds know to come so quickly? They were there almost right after the police,” asked Wallace.

“I think James called them before they arrived,” said Veronica. “He still has a lot of contacts there and he wanted to be prepared.”

“You have some handy friends, Veronica,” said Alex.

“Yeah,” she said, looking at them all. “I have some really handy friends.

***

Late that night, Veronica and Logan headed up to bed together. Mac and Alex had returned to San Francisco, and Wallace, Annie and Jack had retired to their respective rooms. Inside the master bedroom, Veronica stepped in close to Logan and held him tight.

Logan encircled her in his arms and held her, and when she eventually tipped her head up to look him in the eyes, he could see her eyes were shining with unshed tears. “What’s wrong?”

“I think it’s just hitting me. How close I came to losing you. I‘ve lost you once and I don’t want to experience that again.”

“I’m okay, Veronica,” he said. “In fact I’m more okay than I’ve been in a long time. Gory is no longer a threat, which makes me free again.”

Veronica rose up onto her toes and lifted one hand to behind his head to pull him closer for a kiss. She closed her eyes as his lips met hers and their kiss was sweet and reassuring, life-affirming. Neither wanted to hurry this kiss, content to revel in each other’s touch and the closeness of their bodies.

Logan lifted his head to look again into her eyes, but when she said, “Make love to me, Logan. I need to feel you inside me,” he lowered his lips back to hers and this time, the heat between them built, accelerating like a lit match on gasoline. They kissed hungrily, and hands roamed over clothing, hunting for buttons, zippers, anything to get closer to one another, to feel skin on skin.

Veronica got Logan’s shirt open and was struggling to pull it down his arms and off, hindered by his hands being busy undoing the zipper on the back of her dress. Frustrated by her lack of progress, she growled, “Off,” and tugged hard on the shirt to pull it down his arms. Logan let go of her for the couple of seconds it took him to shed the shirt that was presently offending her so much, before brushing the dress straps off her shoulders and recapturing her lips as the dress fell to the floor.

Having got rid of one barrier, they both started work on the next. Logan attempting to unclasp Veronica’s bra while she unzipped his jeans. As soon as bra and jeans hit the floor, Logan picked her up and carried her to his big bed. Laying her down, carefully, tenderly, he joined her on the bed and kissed her again, now skin to skin, reveling in the feel of the closeness of their bodies.

His lips left hers as he kissed a line down her neck to that little spot she loved where he sucked and nipped, feeling the reaction in her body, the little hitch in her breath and the way her head tilted to improve his access. As she closed her eyes to sink into the feel of his lips on her neck, she ran one hand down his back, feeling his body react until she reached the top edge of his boxers where she played with the elastic.

His hands moved to her breasts where he cupped them and brushed his big thumbs across her already aroused peaks, teasing them to an almost unbearable hardness and sending a sharp shot of arousal direct to her core.

She ran her hand around the top of his boxers till she felt the cut in of his abs as they disappeared below his shorts. Lightly scraping her nails, she smiled as she felt him react, and upped the ante by reaching down further to cup him through the soft cotton fabric.

He groaned, but responded by lowering his head to take one breast into his mouth and sweep his tongue across her erect, sensitive nipple. Struggling not to be overcome by the feel of her hand wrapped around his cock, he laved attention on her breasts with fingers and mouth, sucking, licking, teasing until she started writhing beneath his ministrations.

Initially distracted by his mouth on her breasts, her hands stilled momentarily, but then she brought her other hand up to his head, playing with his hair while lightly holding him to her breast. The hand on his cock shifted back to the top elastic of his boxers where she slid her hand inside to wrap around his cock again, this time skin to skin, and to slowly run her hand up his length adding a little twist at the end.

He swore as the sensation almost made his eyes cross and spoke, voice raspy with desire, “Ah, Veronica, I wanted to take this slow, but if you keep that up, it’s going to be over pretty damn soon.”

Continuing by running her thumb over the head of his cock, feeling his body shudder as she did it, she said, “Slow can wait for later. I need you right now, want to feel you in me,” and pumped him again.

Fuck, he groaned and lifted off her to strip off his boxers. He looked back at her to see she had also shed her underwear and he quickly ran his hand down to the top of her thatch. She eagerly parted her thighs to increase his access. His fingers slid down further and finding her incredibly wet, he entered her and ran his thumb across her clit.

She bucked. And moaned. His cock twitched at the sound and the feeling of his fingers sinking into her hot wet heat. Her hips pushed towards his hand of their own accord, seeking more friction and he started to bend his head to join his fingers when she said, “Please Logan, I want you inside me now. Please,” she entreated.

Changing tack at the urgency in her voice, he shifted position, pulling his fingers out before lining himself up and thrusting in hard and fast as his lips found hers again for a searing kiss. He withdrew before thrusting in again and she wrapped her legs around his hips. He quickly found a hard fast rhythm that she matched, arms around him, fingernails scratching into his back, heels digging into his ass to pull him closer. 

It didn’t take long, this first time, so desperate were they for each other, so ready and she came moments before him. They lay there, wrapped in each other, breathing hard as heart rates started to slow.

Veronica spoke first, “I love you.”

Logan tightened his hold on her, “You have no idea how much it means to me to have you say that.”

“For so long, I regretted not saying it to you before. Because I did love you then, and I love you now,” she said. “I thought I’d lost that chance.”

“You’ve got me now. For good, in any way you want,” replied Logan

“Are you going to ask me to marry you again?”

“Do you want me to?” he asked. 

“Not yet,” she answered.

He smiled against her hair.

***


	25. Twenty five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter, so thankyou all for reading along. Love the comments and the kudos and all the love has warmed the heart of this novice fic writer.

Monday Morning

“So what will you do now? About your lawyer and all?” asked Wallace.

The three of them were in Logan’s car, on their way back to San Francisco via the airport.

“I’ve been thinking about that. I really don’t want the Castle involved in my business anymore, so I’m going to get rid of Andrew as my lawyer, which I would do just for him not sending my letter to Veronica. But the money being stolen, I need to think about that. The Foundation doesn’t need bad publicity, but at the same time, he’s been stealing and he has to pay.”

“What about if you make him repay the money, and maybe make a sizable donation to the Foundation in addition?” suggested Wallace. “That way he pays and the Foundation gets a benefit.”

“That could be fitting,” mused Veronica. “So long as you fire him as well.”

“That goes without saying,” replied Logan.

“Are you going to see Duncan?” asked Wallace.

“I think we probably should, but maybe not immediately. We were friends a long time, but I think we should just let the dust settle. According to Jack, Jake is at the hospital and we really don’t want to see him, but Duncan intends to recover with Celeste in Napa, so I was thinking we could go then. It would give us the chance to see Lilly as well,” said Logan, looking across at Veronica. 

She nodded, “That sounds like a good idea.” Contentedly sitting in the car at that moment with her boyfriend and one of her best friends, Veronica contemplated the ways in which her life had adapted to Logan’s reappearance, and thought about how grateful she was to have friends who _knew_ , who could recognise the core of goodness there was within. She snaked her hand over, lay it on Logan’s thigh.

Wallace, spotting Veronica’s hand, said, “Uh uh you two. No hanky panky in the car.”

“Hanky panky, Wallace?” said Veronica. “What are you, eighty?” but she started to pull her hand away.

“If it stops PDA in front of me, I’ll take it.”

Logan laughed, but grabbed her hand and lifted it to his lips for a kiss. “You really shouldn’t throw me a challenge,” he said over his shoulder to Wallace.

***

“I know about Robert Carson,” stated Logan. He had flown to LA Monday afternoon after meeting with Andrea Main in the morning.

His lawyer, Andrew Mathis flinched but tried to cover, “Who?”

“Your ex-stepson, Robert Carson,” repeated Logan. “The one at Columbia. The one my foundation has paid the majority of college tuition and expenses for over the past four years. Two years of Stanford and two of Columbia Law. Taking the money that was meant for Veronica. Meant for people who really needed it.”

“You don’t know why I did it, Logan. But I did it for you, to keep you safe.”

“You mean because Jake Kane asked you to? You and Philip Carson, the judge who officiated on my name change, another Castle member. Protecting the Castle against another a Russian mobster who you admitted.”

Andrew deflated. “I had to do it. It was Gabrielle. She forced my hand.”

“Exactly how did your ex-wife force you?”

“She found out about the Russians and threatened to reveal your secret.”

“Sorry?”

“She heard me talking to Philip about your name change. How it was critical we kept it quiet to keep the Sorokins away. When the divorce got ugly, she threatened to expose you and the Castle involvement to the Sorokins if I didn’t pay up.”

“So why didn’t you just pay for it from your own money?”

“It was her idea. She knew that if she made me take it from the foundation, she would have an extra layer of insurance. She knew that I would never want it revealed as it would expose me as a thief, so I would keep it going all the way through to the end. I thought that by next year it would all be over when he finished law school. But I haven’t really been stealing.”

“Taking from the foundation isn’t stealing?”

“We have been donating the amount back. Philip and I have been donating the cost of the scholarship each year. So not actually stealing, more,” he paused to think, “channelling.”

“Uh huh,” Logan sounded sceptical.

“We have. You can check.”

“It’s still stealing. And that doesn’t even address that you didn’t send Veronica my letter. That she didn’t know I was still alive. You did that to keep your dirty little secret.”

“I did it to keep you safe. The Sorokins,” Andrew started, “they are dangerous. Gory more than most. You shouldn’t have taken him on.”

“It was what Gory did to Veronica that made me take him on, and the only reason he did that was because of what the Castle had him doing in the first place. It always comes back to the Castle.”

“I don’t know the story behind it. All Jake told us was that you had hit Gory and he was going to kill you. He didn’t want to see you hurt because of how you had been a friend to Duncan, to Lilly.”

“Secrets and lies. That’s what your society trades in,” said Logan. “Well, here is what is going to happen...Robert’s scholarship ends now. You will pay the foundation for the cost of the scholarship in Robert’s name and it will be recorded as a reimbursement. It can be noted that the recipient’s eligibility had been incorrectly assessed and the award was being corrected.”

“What about the money we’ve already paid?” he said indignantly.

“As you said, Andrew, it was a donation. For the foundation’s accounts to be correct and auditable, the scholarship needs to be rescinded and the money repaid.” Logan was clinical now. “In addition, you will resign your position as Chairman. If you don’t do both these things, I will arrange to have the foundation re-audited and have you investigated for embezzlement. I have no desire to have the foundation’s good name dragged through the mud because of you, but I will if you give me no choice. I have also instructed a new legal firm to take over my business and they will be contacting you as soon as I advise them this meeting has taken place.”

“You’re firing me?” asked Andrew.

“Are you really surprised?” replied Logan.

***

Logan called Veronica late in the afternoon. “It’s done,” he said. “The first step in extricating myself from the Castle.”

“Are you going to meet up with Trina?” she asked.

“I spoke to her agent. Would you believe it, she actually has a job. She has picked up a small recurring role on a teenage drama, and has a lead on a supporting role in a sitcom.”

“Wow, good for her, I guess. But I wouldn’t think she could play a teenager. I don’t think even we’d pass for that.”

“This is Hollywood. Most teenagers are played by people our age, but she’s playing an older sister, or a neighbor, or something like that. But I digress. The main thing is that she is out of town filming this week, but she is expected back in LA on Friday, so I’ll try to catch up with her this weekend. I don’t want to leave it any longer in case any of this goes public,” he said. Then he added, “Can I interest you in a trip to LA late Friday afternoon?”

“You hate LA.”

“Yes, but I want to tell her in person. And I’d like to have you along.”

“Really?”

“Why so surprised, Veronica? I want you there for the important parts of my life. And I don’t want to spend weekends away from you.”

“Oh,” she replied. “I think I can manage that.”

“The second part is that I was thinking of driving to Neptune after seeing Trina on Saturday. I think we need to visit your dad.”

“That sounds very responsible, and I’d like that a lot.”

“I also want to see Dick, tell him in person.”

“That, not so much.”

He laughed, “I can do that on my own. Give you time to spend with your dad. We can fly back from San Diego late Sunday night.”

“Are you going to stay in LA tonight?” she asked.

“I just booked a flight. I’ll be back around seven. Can I stay with you tonight?” he asked hopefully. 

“I’d like that.”

***

In bed that night, feeling warm and well satisfied, Veronica thought about the past couple of weeks, how much her world had changed, and how much she wanted these changes because life with Logan in it was so much better. She didn’t want to imagine going back to being apart and contemplated the advice her friends had given her in the last week. Feeling soft and loose and almost unbearably happy, she turned to look at him and said, “Wallace gave me some advice.”

“I’m all for Wallace’s advice, but not sure I want to hear it when we’re naked in bed.”

“It was good advice.”

“Well that makes all the difference.”

“He told me to talk to you.”

Logan got serious, “Okay. What do you want to talk about?”

“How are we going to make this work? You’re in Monterey, I’m working here and then next year, maybe law school. It all feels so good now, when we’re in bed and everything seems perfect. But how are we going to make this actually work?”

“Why don’t we start with now?” suggested Logan. “I’m not naïve enough to believe that we will never spend a night apart, but honestly I only need to be in Monterey about one and a half days a week at the moment, although I foresee a bit more time needed when we appoint a new Foundation chair. We can spend some weekends in Monterey and some up here. I’ll spend one or two nights during the week there and the rest here with you. If me being here in the apartment gets to be too much, for you or for Mac, I can always find a place in San Francisco. We’ll work it out.”

“You’d do that for me?” asked Veronica.

“Veronica, in case you haven’t noticed, I’d do just about anything to be with you. That’s all I want. You’re all I want,” he said, making her melt a little.

“Okay. That sounds,” she paused, “good, because I really want to be with you too.”

“Good,” he replied. “And after the summer, in the new school year if you go to Columbia, I’ve started looking into transfers. There are a lot of good schools in New York and my grades are good, will be even better after this semester, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Um, don’t do that too quickly,” she said.

“You haven’t turned down Columbia, have you?”

“No,” she replied. “Not yet. But I think I’m going to. I don’t want to go to New York. Mac said to me the other day that I didn’t have to prove anything to anyone. That I didn’t have to go to the other side of the country and leave my friends and family and support system behind. She also pointed out that I live in a city with two of the best law schools in the country, and if I wanted to become a lawyer, maybe I should apply to one of them.”

“Do you want to become a lawyer?” he asked.

“I still don’t know,” she replied. “James said he is going to start up his own firm for Investigations and security. He asked me to join him. He thinks I have a talent in investigation.”

“Do you want to do that?”

“I think so, but there’s a catch.”

“What’s that?”

“He wants me to go to law school and become legal counsel. He thinks I have a talent in investigation, but the mind of a lawyer, and I shouldn’t waste it.”

Logan laughed. “It looks like all roads lead to law school. Are you okay with that?”

“Maybe? I’m still not sure it’s worth it.”

“If it’s about the money...”

“It’s not that, at least not entirely. I’m coming to terms with your money, but give me a little time. In psych classes at college, you learn that the number one issue couples argue about is money. It’s just not normally because there’s too much,” she said.

“Okay,” said Logan. “Then what is the issue with law school, because I think you’d be a great lawyer?”

“Really?”

“Of course. You’re smart and you think on your feet. The investigation training has taught you to be a good judge of character and you’re all wrapped up in a beautiful,” he kissed her lightly, “easy to underestimate,” and bobbed his eyebrows, “package.”

“Well that gives me more to think about. And speaking of thinking, I had some thoughts about paying you and the Foundation back,” she said.

In exasperation, Logan groaned, “Veronica.”

“Wait, I think you might like this idea. What about payment in kind?”

His eyebrows flew up, “Excuse me?” Did you just propose paying me in sex for your scholarship? I could go along with that,” as he playfully snuggled in and started nibbling on her neck causing her to both giggle and moan.

“Mind out of the gutter, Logan,” she said, mirth in her voice, but his mouth on her neck was so enticing that she tilted her head to give him more access. “I was thinking, I could volunteer my investigative services. The foundation has to do checks on staff and on the applicants. I could do them pro bono, save the foundation the cost of paying a PI service. Ta-da! Two problems solved!” She started to do jazz hands as emphasis, but in the close confines the movement became a caress across the firm muscles of his chest.

Surprised, he lifted a hand to hold one of hers against his chest, his heart. “I had wanted to get you onto the board, but for now, that sounds like a really good idea. Although, you would be surprised how much we do on an annual basis. We get a lot of applications and we vet thoroughly.”

“Really?”

“I am completely serious. We have been looking at hiring another person in the Applications Division.”

“Wow.”

“And if you decide on law school,” he started.

“Can we table that for now,” she interrupted. “I still don’t want to think about what that will cost.”

Logan, realizing that she wasn’t ready to be pressed on the money issue of law school, wisely decided that it wasn’t worth the possibility of losing him snuggling privileges for the night as well as the chance of round two, and said, “Okay.” He leaned forward to kiss her gently.

“Thank you,” she replied. “I know that this is all happening quickly, but I feel like we’ve been given this second chance, and I don’t want to waste it, or to waste time.” She moved a little closer, leaned into the kiss.

“I feel it too,” he replied, hand sliding up her arm to touch her face. “I’ve craved this, craved you. I thought for so long that I had lost you, that you had moved on, and I had to as well.”

“I never did. Even on the days you weren’t in my thoughts, you were there in my dreams. My therapist told me that I couldn’t move on because I had never had closure on our relationship. My heart wasn’t going to let you go.”

“I never wanted to trap you, Veronica.”

“It wasn’t a trap. I see now it was a choice. I knew what it was to have someone love me so much that they would risk themselves for me, that they would always be there for me.” Her hand reached for him, needing that touch, that tangible closeness. “And I regret so much not having the courage to tell you that I loved you then. And I still love you, but it’s better now.” Her hand skated down his chest to his waist where she tugged him a little closer.

“Better how?” He brushed his hand back down to her neck.

“We talk now. We can see each other’s point of view, even if we don’t agree with it. Before, I had goals and ideas that I had planned for years and I expected you to have them too. I didn’t understand that you had never had that chance, that your experience was so different from mine. I thought that with Aaron gone, you could just snap your fingers and have a plan for your future. I never even dreamed that you wouldn’t have one all mapped out.” Her fingers skated across his abs and she could feel them contract at her touch.

“We were both too young, Veronica. We both made assumptions about each other’s motives. I thought you wanted me to have a plan for the future because that was what Duncan had, and I was just a substitute for Duncan. I know I’m not, but at nineteen, that’s what I thought.”

“Oh god, I never thought that!”

“I know, but back then neither of us were equipped to deal with the after effects of all the trauma. We just thought that we could just move on, and it would be easy, but it wasn’t and it shouldn’t have been. But you’re right, it’s better now,” he said, hand sliding down from her neck to draw a line between her breasts. “I just want to say that whatever you choose, I’ll be there for you, and with you.”

“So if I accept a place at a law school in Bumfuck, Wherever, you’ll come with me?”

He laughed, “Bumfuck, Wherever doesn’t sound that appealing. But throw in a decent surf break…”

She smiled wickedly, “I don’t know, Bumfuck sounds,” she paused for dramatic emphasis while dropping her hand lower to wrap around his cock, “intriguing.”

Logan’s jaw dropped open and he inhaled sharply. “I’ll keep that in mind for future reference,” he choked out a few moments later. Recovering quickly he followed up with, “Although you were the one who told me to keep my mind out of the gutter.”

“I like to keep you on your toes,” she smirked.

“So how do you feel if, sometime this year, we start living together?” kissing her again, this time putting a little more intent into the kiss and rubbing his thumb across one nipple.

“I think that could be good,” she said, voice growing a little husky.

“And I would marry you tomorrow if you wanted,” he said, skimming his hand down her side to her thatch.

She moaned.

“Could I seduce you into accepting?” His head bent and his lips dropped to her breasts to lick and tease.

“But then would I be marrying you for love, or just for your body?” she whispered, pushing herself up and straddling him on the bed. Bending down to kiss him hard on the mouth, she felt his erection again, steely and eager beneath her hands. She rose up, and aligning herself above him, slid down fast to seat herself, making him gasp at the sudden sensation.

“Who’s seducing whom?” he groaned as she started riding him in earnest.

***

Later, satisfied, they held each other with contented affection, knowing that they were finally exactly where they belonged, not with closure, but instead, a real beginning. She lifted her head to catch his gaze and as she looked into his eyes, she said, “I’ll think about it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd just like to thank everyone who has read along with this fic. It's been quite a ride and I know I would have become incredibly discouraged without the support and friendly words I have received along the way and especially SkylaRose who made me realise team detecting was an important part of the narrative.
> 
> Finally, thanks to Aurora2020 for beta'ing this into shape, especially this final chapter which would have been a whole lot flatter without her help, and to Cactus Betty who made just the right suggestion at just the right time.


End file.
